Prices Paid
by Ar-Kaos
Summary: Ranma Oh My Goddess crossover new SM element. No longer a one shot. Genma made one deal too many. Warning starts Somewhat dark and gets worse?
1. Prices Paid

**Prices Paid**

There was a storm over Nerima that night. It was extremely violent in its ferocity and even in the Tendo-ke the charge it was giving off could be felt.

One large bald man in a dirty white Gi turned to his shogi companion "bad feeling in the air tonight" he said.

"Yes there is Saotome, reminds me of the night the boy disappeared" Replied the moustachioed companion. He looked back to the game just in time to miss the shiver that ran through Genma's body.

In the next room Akane and Kasumi sat watching a TV show about a world-spanning special ops team fighting off an alien menace.

Suddenly there was a crack of lightening and all the lights went out, leaving only the TV on, which was running static. Ominous shadows were thrown across the room and its occupants. Thunder rolled, and then everything was silent.

A voice full of gravel and hate broke the silence.

"Saotome Genma, I have come for you!" The extended family quickly whirled to face the shadowy corner from where the voice had come.

A Deeper Darkness stood there pierced only by two burning eyes that shed flickering shadows across a sinister visage. Akane drew Mallet-sama and threw herself at the figure, she never got there. A bolt of black-purple light struck her in the chest and threw her back, breaking a set of shelves the other side of the room. The smell of scorched flesh assailed their nostrils.

"On the fourteenth of march nineteen eighty one you sold a six year old child's soul. For that and more crimes than can ever be counted I call you to account.!" Said the voice. Genma fell into the crouch of the 'white-tiger revised,' 'fat-man shitting himself.' Soun burst into tears over what he assumed was his dead daughter (despite the fact she was still twitching in the mess). Kasumi fainted.

"Dawn tomorrow fat man or I will take matters into my own hands." Said the voice and it threw a package to the crouching coward.

The lights came back up and the family was alone again. Genma slowly raised his eyes, Soun rushed over to his baby daughter (ignoring the more worthy ones plight as usual).

Genma slowly lifted the white package the figure had thrown, It was a white kimono, and obi wrapped around a tanto. He looked up, "Boy?"

Doctor Tofu was quickly summoned, only to prove incapable of coherent thought because his dearest love was unconscious.

Genma had retreated to the Dojo and Akane was moaning loudly in a pathetic demand for attention. All of this left Soun crying a river.

* * *

At length Kasumi came to and proceeded to take things in hand, Akane was carried to her room by Soun, and Tofu eventually got the idea and followed. Then Kasumi went to find Genma.

He was kneeling, face down, before the shrine. She stopped by the door, "Oh my!" she exclaimed. He raised his head and she could see the tear tracks running down his face. "Oh my!" she repeated.

"It was Ranma," he said in a small voice as if from very far away. The admission stunned her.

"The shadow-"

"Was Ranma" he confirmed.

"How, why?" she asked.

"Yes why don't you tell her fat man!" came the voice, mocking, from the back of the dojo. The two occupants turned.

Ranma stood there, but it wasn't him, Gone was the pigtail, the innocent blue eyes, and his traditional red shirt. In their place was a cross between some man and a demon of some kind. His eyes burned with an internal flme that shed its own light. His Hair was spiked and seemed blacker than black itself. He wore a black waist-coat with silver patterns, open at the front, a set of black pants and a pair of big silver and black boots. His right hand was clawed and grey-scaled. The shadows themselves seemed to form dark wings around his body, twitching in an absent wind. Worst of all across all his body, and curled onto his face was what appeared a black tendril tattoo, only it too seemed to squirm and writhe.

"Why don't you tell her where I have been, where you sent me!" the voice rasped.

"My boy-" Genma started only to be interrupted by a sudden flaring of Ranma's fiery aura.

"NEVER call me that again!" he ordered "You lost all rights to me when you sold me to Hell"

"Please Ranma" Genma begged, sobbing "I didn't know I didn't mean it to.." he broke off into wracking sobs.

"Didn't mean to?" Ranma demanded "I've seen the contract! You signed it in blood, yours and mine! You knew exactly what you were doing! You just didn't care." Genma had fallen back into his patent crouch, only this time his fear was mixed with genuine sorrow.

"Tell her Genma! Tell her how you signed away your child's soul to a demon from hell! Sold it for a single meal. How you bargained with it to keep me for as long as you could before he took me. Not so you could find a way out but so you could continue living off my sweat." Ranma stalked closer, shadow wings streaming out, seeming to defy the dimensions of the room.

"I have spent an eternity as a plaything of demons. I have been tortured in ways no mortal could ever dream of, not even in their wildest nightmares. And I have forever lost a piece of myself, one that I can never get back. Now tell me fat man, was filling your gut worth it? WELL?" Ranma shouted, his voice full of dark power. At the last even the lights flickered.

"You have nine hours fat man, better brush up on your haiku!" And then he was gone, only shadows remained. Kasumi, like a puppet whose strings were cut, fell to her knees, her own tears falling to join Genma's on the dojo floor.

Dawn arrived late the next day. Mist had gathered in the post storm stillness and shrouded the sleepy town. In the garden of the Tendo-ke several figures were gathered. First there were the Tendos, less Nabiki who was still away in America. Beside them was Nodoka, looking very formal in her best kimono. Then came Konatsu and Ukyo, looking confused. Besides them and completing the semi-circle were the Amazons, mouse already ducka-fied and caged. In front of them, with his face to the dawn knelt Genma. He was dressed in the formal white kimono of mourning, and had a tanto and a scroll laid out before him.

Suddenly, where before there had been only mist, there stood Ranma. He was still dressed in the unremitting Black of the night before but gloves, a long sleeved shirt and a dark long-coat hid most of his own darkness. The eyes remained the same though, burning pits of hate.

"Where is your second Saotome?" the figure asked.

"I, Saotome Genma, son of Saotome Tenma, formally ask you, who I have wronged worst of all, to deliver the fourth cut." Genma said adding a formal bow. By now only the shock of Ranma's changed appearance and the formality of the occasion restrained the inevitable chaos. It couldn't last.

"Ranma No Baka!" Akane cried hurling herself at him again, mallet –sama readied. Ranma caught her by the throat with his left hand and swatted her mallet away with his right. For a moment he said nothing, instead his burning eyes bored into her choking face.

"Akane, I will say this once," he began, "You have no claim over me and nothing I want. You have one more chance and then I WILL kill you." The last was said with such sincerity that all the colour drained from the girl. He threw her to the ground.

"But you said you loved me" she whispered. "When you killed Saffron." Ranma stopped and turned back to look at her fallen form.

"Saffron. Hah, I had forgotten," he began, but his mirth was far from reassuring. "Maybe I did then, but not now, now all I have left for you is contempt. To think I used to think you were pretty, HAH!" Needless to say Akane was lost, so she reverted to form, thinking things through in her own special way.

1-Ranma, missing for days-

2-Ranma comes back, changed, claiming he doesn't love me-

3-Ranma is wearing black

1+2+3 Ranma has been with Kodachi!

"Ranma No Hentai!" she commanded, looking around for a heavy object. Only to be interrupted by Ranma's boot kicking her across the chin. She lay there stunned, his mocking laughter filling her ears.

"I have been subjected to, and subjected others to, depravities you could never comprehend. I have wallowed in perversions that would blow your tiny little mind. Believe me when I say you have Nothing that I want." He laughed and turned to the others. "Now in case any of the rest of you decide to mar this moment with crass outbursts, be warned, my patience is exhausted and you wouldn't like me when I am angry!"

"Son?" Nodoka asked. He turned to her, eyes aflame.

"HUSH!" he commanded. Then he turned to his father, "Genma, I refuse, find someone else. Now!" Genma tried to stifle the tears.

"There will be no need," he said and began the ceremony by bowing to the rising sun.

_-_

"_In this world_

_we walk on the roof of hell,_

_gazing at flowers."_

_-_

Genma intoned in the dread stillness.

Then he laid down the scroll and raised the tanto to the sun. Its blade shone bright as it was drawn.

He reversed his grip placed the balde against his abodomen and raised his face to the sun.

Without another word Genma Saotome did the only honourable thing he ever did, he died.

-

-Nodoka turned her face to the floor, failing to stem the tears.

-Soun fell to his knees weeping silently.

-Kasumi buried her face in her hands and fled into the house.

-Akane remained on the floor truly moved by a moment of greatness by a man she despised.

-Ukyo forced a grin, but Konatsu wept in her place.

-Cologne took hr heir and duck by the hand and cage and left.

- Ranma moved over to the shell that had been his father. He whispered "Good-bye sensei, father." And then he too walked away.

He had not reached the first corner when Akane caught him up.

"What about the engagements?" she asked. He smiled.

"What engagements?" he replied, striding on. She caught up again.

"What about me?" she asked in a small voice.

"You," he started "You will go on to marry some repressed little norm, remain trapped in your repressed little world and go on to raise repressed little children and make each others' lives miserable for the rest of your repressed insignificant little lives." And then he was gone, from Nerima and her life.

* * *

Ranma moved into his mother's home the same day, he didn't ask he just did it. She said nothing, with the death of her husband a fire in her had gone out and all that remained was routine.

Meanwhile up in his room Ranma was removing his shirt, changing into something less formal. All of a sudden there was another figure in the room. She was tall blonde and built. She was wearing a tight leather bodice, with shoulder plates, high blue stockings and higher heels, around her back floated a red cape. On her face were the diagonal-line markings of a Demon first-class.

"Mara," he intoned, without turning. She flinched a little.

"Hild-dono wants to talk to you," the demoness told him. He slowly turned to face her, wings of darkness gathering.

"I am not hers to command! Nor am I yours demoness!" he spat, "So you can tell your bitch queen that I have had enough of her and all her ilk. She can take her summons, her invitations and her rules and shove them up her well buggered asshole!" Mara found herself pressed up against the wall, his imposing presence mere millimetres away from her. "And while you are at it" he said "Tell her that the next time I so much as see one of your kind it dies!" and then he was gone, back across the room. She scrabbled for a cd and fled back to Nifleheim as fast as her energies could carry her.

* * *

Some time later he was walking through a neaby park, dressed in a fuller disguise and lost in dark thoughts. When all of a sudden a voice cried "There he is!" and he turned to see four people running towards him. The three girls were radiating deific energy and were clearly of some note by its quantity

They were also quite beautiful, or would be in the case of the youngest.

"Halt demon!" she commanded pulling out a MASSIVE hammer.

"Maybe not," he thought. Out loud, almost shouting, he said "What?" The quartet were momentarily taken aback. The mortal already looked like he wanted to run.

"You've got to leave here and never come back!" commanded the youngest.

"Tell me why Skuld?" he asked, she seemed genuinely shocked by him knowing her name. "Give me one good reason why!"

"Cuz otherwise I'll squish you with a Skuld Bomb TM!" the youngest Norn declared. Ranma for the briefest moment considered not laughing and then gave in. His laugh was not kind, not at all.

"Child goddess, when I was still mortal I tore out the essence of a Marquis of Hell. I tore out his still beating heat with my own hand and ate it, raw. Now please tell me again what you plan to do."

"Back-off buster," said Urd, the eldest, and sexiest. "Leave the kid alone."

"Gladly," Ranma replied, "You extend the same favour and maybe I won't have to eat you all too."

"Whoa there big boy" she said "Your attitude needs some adjustment!"

"My attitude?" he sneered, anger rising, "What would you know of it?" his aura started to flare. "You who call yourselves goddesses, protedctors of the innocent!" he spat the last "You make me sick!" the three goddesses were clustered together, backing off, Keichii was finding courage where there had never been any before. "You stand back and let this happen and you call yourselves good? You let your father impose the doublet system and claim to be righteous. You give up the fight against hell and you claim to be holy?" this time he really did spit, a gob of flaming acid. "You let Nifleheim buy the souls of innocents, let them drag the children down into hell, toture rape and twist them, you let them do this and you claim to defend?" Well I spit on you, and all your filthy lying breed. I reject you and offer only scorn!" At this last Belldandy ran off, tears flowing freely down her face. Keichii looked once at Ranma with a gaze that would have made medusae proud and ran after her, shortly followed by Skuld.

"I know who you are now" Urd said in an even voice. "And I know you have reason to be angry, but Bell did not deserve that." Then she turned and left, slowly.

Ranma was left standing alone in a burnt patch of ground, thoroughly deflated.

* * *

The next day there was a knock on Keichii's temple's door. He opened it, glancing behind him at the still crying Belldandy. The four of them had sat up till the wee hours reviewing Ranma's file and hearing the latest tradgedies to strike the family Saotome.

Standing at the door was the very subject of their study, Ranma, once a boy now something between a demon and a man, possessed of the power of a Great Lord of Hell, within the altered shell of a ordinary human.

"Domo," he said bowing a little " I am here to see Belldandy."

"I really don't think she wants to talk to you!" Keichi said.

"No. Its alright Kei-kun" bell's voice chimed out, "Give me a moment please Saotome-san."

"Hai." Ranma said bowing again. Keichii stepped out of the way and motioned for him to enter, he just raised an eyebrow and then looked at the holy floor and back at him.

"Oh yeah, holy, I forgot." Said Keichii. Then Belldandy appeared behind him. Keichii reluctantly moved out of the way, and Bell moved to the door proper.

Ranma bowed deeply, "Gomen Nasai Belldandy-dono" he said formally "My troubles were not your fault, I was wrong to blame you." He bowed again. She reached out a quivering hand, and lightly touched his shoulder, only to see him flinch.

"Gomen Saotome-san" she replied in a trembling voice. He straightened, turned and left. "If only that were true" she whispered, watching his retreating back.

Urd met him at the next corner. At his raised eyebrow she looked at a mirror placed on the nearby driveway.

"Thank-you Saotome-san" she said. He smiled, and for once it showed just a hint of the person he was before Balthazzar dragged him to hell. She moved aside to let him pass. As he was almost away she said "the motor club is having a party on Saturday at the Student Union, it could use a little livening up." He paused for a moment, looked over his shoulder at her, smiled and nodded. And then he was gone, lost in a passing crowd.

"Damn that's a fine ass!" she whispered to herself, whistling. Shortly followed by an "oops" as she was shockingly reminded of the swearing rules.


	2. Broken

**Broken**

(A/N this is an attempt at a continuation, I am not very happy with it but we'll see where it goes)

Kaiou Michuru sat by the bed of her lover, gently stroking the taller girl's hair. The steady beeping of the monitors had faded into the background, only the too gentle rise and fall of Haruka's chest revealed the truth of her life.

"Why?" Michuru murmured for the thousandth time, fresh tears falling down her delicate face. Once again she broke down, collapsing onto the comatose body of the woman she was supposed to spend eternity with. Even as she lay there, her head resting on her lover's chest, she could still picture the way things were supposed to be, balls, dresses, music and laughter. Instead there was only pain, dust and the quiet noises of the machines that were all that stood between her love and death.

"I wish I knew" replied Mizuno Ami, unable to see where the question was directed. Since that terrible day she had seen only darkness. Even now over a month later her ruined eyes remained bandaged and she was a long way from adjusted to her new condition. Inside that darkness more changes had gone by less noticed. What Michuru would never know is that the shy retiring girl had been biting back harsher words.

Her mother had seen it first. The look on her face as Ami had sworn at her and told her that "No it wasn't going to be alright in the end," that there were no happy endings and "For fuck's sake wake up!" had been priceless. For once Ami had actually enjoyed hurting someone, it was nice to be the one dishing the pain for a change, to have just a little control in the world gone mad. That the quiet girl had since started using a razor on herself was just another attempt at control, Ami knew this, if she hadn't guessed then one of the damn cats would have told her.

"Bloody sanctimonious bastards" Ami muttered. This of course set Michuru off again.

"Shut up!" she cried, "All I want is some peace, some time alone with… Just leave!" she finished pointing at the door.

"Damn her!" the quiet girl fumed, leaving nonetheless. "Other people are hurting too! At least there is still hope for Haruka." For Ami that was the worst of it by far. Over the years she had watched the Elder couple with increasing envy, hiding her own feelings behind a mask of friendship. She had guessed that her beloved was at least a little aware, but for the sake of their friendship she had quashed the feelings again. By the time Ami had finally admitted the true depth of her feelings for her fellow Senshi it had been to late and her beloved had died in her arms.

O

O

"_Ami I….." Jupiter coughed, flecks of blood staining Ami's already filthy fuku. _

"_Shh I know anata" Ami replied, wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of Jupiter's mouth. "You can tell me later-"_

"_Ami," Makoto interrupted, running a bloodied hand through the smaller girl's thick black hair, "Ashiter-" but the word was interrupted by a spasm of coughing. A bout of coughing that ended in a harsh rattle. Kino Makoto, senshi of Jupiter, was dead, and with her so died a piece of Mizuno Ami._

O

o

The dark day had shattered all that the girls had believed in, destroyed the perfect world they inhabited. Suddenly a pure heart did not guarantee success, Love would not see you through. From the moment the first one of them had fallen their universe had changed forever.

Setsuna, unusually rattled by her inability to predict the sudden incursion into downtown Tokyo, had leapt to the attack, Dead Scream leading. The monster, Winged and fiery, had absorbed her attack, looking more shocked than concerned, and only after a moment's silence did it respond. It had leapt at the Senshi of time, four taloned arms leading. When it had arrived those same claws had torn through Setsuna's skin and flesh. Ami's nightmares were still haunted by the sound that accompanied the strike that had driven Pluto into a broken heap at the foot of a wall nearly ten feet away.

Next had been Rei, always fiery of temper as well as by calling had rushed in, enraged beyond reason. The beast had turned on her and within seconds the once proud Senshi of Mars lay broken and bloody on the floor, her ribcage open to the sky. Ami had seen a split artery eject bright blood a goodeight feet into the sky, and seen the beast swallow Rei's beating heart.

Hotaru and Mina had faced similar, gory fates, caught unaware as Mercury's Shabon spray failed to blind the fiend.

Then Lovely Makoto, so strong and able, a perfect combination of form and function, suddenly torn down in her prime; she had died in Mercury's arms, unable even to finish her declaration of love.

The worst was still to come. After all it wasn't as if the senshi hadn't faced death before. Indeed most of them had already died once and been reborn. No the worst was to come when the demon they fought had laughed off their leader's most powerful attack and turned on the princess. He had then absentmindedly killed the destined king of Crystal Tokyo, without so much as a sideways glance, before stealing their princess and carrying her screaming into the void whence it came.

The team had been shattered, its very core torn out. All that was left were broken shells. Shells like the bitter, blinded creature that had been the Senshi of Mercury and the hollow shell that had been the Senshi of Neptune, living embodiment of the beauty and grace that they all had aspired to, now broken and forlorn.

Even these shells were better off than some others. Haruka crippled, Setsuna missing and Rei, Mina, Mamoru and even little Hotaru all now lying cold in chillers below the hospital, the fragile spark of their life extinguished.

O

o

It had all started so suddenly. The girls had been meeting up at the shrine, more for old time's sake than any lingering need. It had literally been years since the senshi had been called upon to use their powers. Slowly the girls had drifted apart, differences that had been ignored under the strain of mutual struggle suddenly becoming magnified by pressures like finals and college entrance exams. Boyfriends, girlfriends and even pets had all conspired to drive a wedge between the friends.

It had been Usagi's idea, ever the peacemaker she had even managed to convince Haruka to agree to be in the same room as Mamoru, no small feat considering the blood between them. With the exception of Setsuna the small circle had met and were managing to be polite, even friendly. Then it had all gone wrong.

O

"_Senshi!" Setsuna shouted, suddenly appearing in the corner of the room. "You need to see this!" she said switching on a news channel. At the same time Ami's own alarm went off, a long unused police band scanner on the mercury computer flashing up the word 'Monster.'_

_On the rapidly awoken TV a scene of true horror was unfolding. A gigantic fiery beast wielding a massive, sparking spear was slaughtering people at the Crown arcade. Even as they watched they saw their old friend Motoki trying to flee for his life, only to be speared clean through the spine and guts. An inarticulate cry of agony was torn from his throat, cut off as blood fountained from the red slash that was his mouth. They could almost smell the burning flesh._

_Naturally they had dropped everything and transformed. Once more the sailor suited soldiers of love and justice they had grown up to be. _

_In their hearts they had already come to know that the coming fight would be different from the children's games they had played before but they had all refused to believe that anything would be different._

_Then the monster had started killing them and everything was different. _

o

o

Meiou Setsuna knelt in front of the gates of time, watching the horrible vision she had summoned. Her left leg was stretched out at an obscene angle, her uniform tatters matted together by hre own blood. Her beautiful face bound with rags across most of the left side. Despite all of this she had somehow summoned the energy to search even into this lowest pit.

As ever the chaotic distortions of Hell made any scanning difficult but after a month of fruitless searching the Senshi of Time had finally located her princess. The scene was worse than she had ever expected, her delicate princess being brutalised by a pack of howling devils, her mouth torn at the edges from screaming. Even to be visible through the distortion this event had to be either endlessly repeated or all but continuous. Setsuna wept, wept for her weakness and her failure. She wept for her broken dreams and for the shining future that would never be.

"Serenity forgive me, I have failed you both."

O

O

O

Urd, goddess of the past, was just putting the final touches to her outfit for the party when she heard the prayer of one of her own. The Norns, as goddesses of time, were all specially connected to the Guardian of the Gate. Of course Urd was closer than even her sisters, for reasons a lot more personal.

The Silver millennium had been a blessed age for mankind, and in more ways than one. During that age of peace and prosperity those touched by the divine spark mingled freely with the people of the eight worlds. Friendships were formed, relationships developed and in the end children were born. These children, although not possessing all the energy of their divine parent often possessed magical powers way beyond the norm even for that magical age. Urd had been one of those divinities that had fallen in love with a mortal, for a brief lifetime she and her lover had made the universe their own, had written symphonies among the stars, and built a family. Meiou Setsuna was a direct descendant of that union; her amazing powers over Time could be attributed in no small way to Urd's gift.

Urd wasted no time, transporting herself to heaven as fast as she was able. Once there she called up everything she could on the Guardian of time. The physical description was enough to concern her, a list of injuries that would kill most people, staved off only by the preservative effects of her location. But when the Norn tried to access the database for the cause of the injuries she ran into a brick wall. Or rather an encryption code bearing all the hallmarks of the top office.

In her time Urd had cracked some serious code, but this was far worse than that, even calling up the file had set off alarms higher up.

"Holy…" Urd started to swear, then caught herself. Her hand still tightly clenched across her mouth she ran for the door. Something big was going down and she had the feeling that she had just walked into it again.

Back in her room at the shrine Urd took another deep breath. It seemed using Peorth's access code and terminal wasn't a wasted effort after all. The look on the snooty goddess's face alone would have made the trip worthwhile. But it hadn't solved the problem.

"Looks like we'll have to go old school on this" she muttered to herself, turning to her wardrobe.

o

o

The being that used to be Saotome Ranma sat alone in the darkness of his apartment. He was sat cross-legged on a large couch, stripped to the waist. Between his hands circled a ball of deep purple and sky blue energy. The light it gave off bounced off the surfaces of the room, casting evil shadows that seemed to move until you looked at them directly.

By the dark light his torso could just be made out, covered in a darker pattern that once more seemed to writhe of its own volition; an ever-changing arcane pattern that the human mind was simply unable to grasp.

His eyes were the only other light source in the room, casting a flickering light all of their own, and deeply focused on the ball in front of him. Despite the alien nature of these eyes they gave the unmistakable impression of deepest concentration and more than a little strain.

All of a sudden from somewhere hidden in the darkness came the plaintiff sound of a mobile phone alarm. Ranma uttered a truly obscene oath (at least if you knew gutter deamonic) and let his construction fade.

He extended one, altered, hand towards the phone and it flew to his grasp in response, as if grasped by the figure's own shadow. His blazing eyes, clearly showing his anger at being disturbed, fixed on the illuminated display.

"Damn!" he swore, "Bloody party!" He straightened and threw back the couch with his legs, effortlessly throwing the large settee back into the wall to clear it out of his way. Without even looking at the now ruined couch he stalked into another room. The ruined remains of the crushed phone trailing behind him.

Within a few minutes he returned, clad in a high collared silk Chinese suit. As he stepped into the lighted hallway the suit seemed to shimmer with a dark gloss pattern but the effect was soon gone as he continued into the lift, pulling on a set of black gloves.

Seconds later he emerged onto the roof, through a door that should have been locked but opened at his touch, and walked out towards the edge. As he approached he broke into a trot and then a run. Behind him his shadow unfurled, stretching out into the nighted sky. As his foot curled over the lip of the roof Ranma leapt out into space, and flew.

O

O

Nekomi Tech's student union looked like a bomb site. It was a three story affair, built during a particularly ugly trend in architecture. Inside however the many students of Nekomi Tech had been able to find a home. Spread over three levels were two pubs one dance club and a terrace restaurant, all decked out in a stunning variety of deor and themes, varied enough that almost anyone could find a homely corner. However the motor club had moved in, and brought their favourite bits with them. From the homemade bucking bronco to the micro-bikes the whole building was strewn with techno-parts. The committee room had been taken over for a swap-meet and every square inch of the room now seemed to be sporting greasy engine parts or second-hand tools. What had been supposed to be a few friends meeting up before the party to swap a few parts had gone wildly out of control.

Keichi and his sister were presiding over the last minute problems from the only clear space, on top of the bar.

"So Rogi's bringing his van to pick up the broken bronco?" Keichi asked, strain evident across his whole demeanour.

"Uh-huh" Megumi agreed.

"And Toshi's bringing his pickup to collect the two V8's?"

"Uh-huh"

"But Sato is still demanding that Heero delivers the hydraulics, and Heero is-"

"Nowhere to be found" Megumi finished.

"Urgh!" Keichi moaned, clutching his head in his hand.

"Tell you what bro" she broke in, "Leave this to me. You worry about the party, I'll sort the clean up."  
"Really?" he asked, face lighting up. She nodded. He hugged her and fled before she could change her mind.

By the time he returned , loaded down with munchies and trailing balloons, all the levels of the union were undergoing a transformation. Everywhere he looked there were guys lifting the motor club's gear into boxes, carefully.

"Meg?" Keichi wondered.

"Yeah bro?" she replied, suddenly appearing behind him. Everything from pretzels to party hats was suddenly raining around the pair.

He looked at her, she looked at him. He glared, she licked dipping sauce off her face and smiled. "Wassup?" she asked, as if she didn't have pretzels in her hair.

"Er…"

"Well when you remember, come find me" she finished, and rapidly headed away. No sooner had she got out of sight than she leaned back against a wall and let out a long sigh.

"That was far too close" she whispered. "Kami only knows what he's gonna say when he finds out Belldandy's catering for the men's hockey club party, or what her sister is supposed to wear while she serves the meal." For a brief moment she wished she had never heard the phrase 'double or nothing' but quickly dismissed the idea, after all it was Keichi's problem now.

O

O

Ranma landed with a muffled thump ten feet from the dorrway, his shadow-wings folding to the ground around him. As he straightened they faded once more into the background and he could be seen adjusting his shades and running a gloved hand across his spiked hair.

In front of him the door beckoned, guarded by two weasly looking members of the club who were 'checking invitations.' As Ranma approached they let another semi-dressed girl in, and even managed to pick their jaws off the floor before Ranma arrived.

"Er Hi?" said the spotty one on the left. He was dressed in what passed for the latest of petrol-head chic, neon dungarees and a bulky jacket. He was also thoroughly confused as to why someone dressed quite as well as the man in front of him would want to go to the motor-club party. "Let me guess, you know the Wodensons right?" he hazarded, figuring that only babes like that could make someone like this attend.

He was rewarded with a wry smile.

"That obvious eh?" said the stranger in a gravely voice, skipping straight past creepy and right into scary as hell. Before either he or his friend could gather their yellow streaks the man had walked right past them.

"Whoooo" intoned the second one, "creepy!"

"You said it" replied the first, gulping down the lump in his throat, and trying to ignore what h thought he saw the man's shadow doing.

Inside the party was still winding up, everywhere Ranma looked he could see people meeting. The bar was crowded with people after their first drink and the band were playing for one lonely drunk on the all but deserted dancefloor. To anybody else that might have been all that they saw, but for Ranma small extra details stood out: the diminished lifeforce of the dancer giving away that her state was probably more to do with drugs than drink, the dark 'mature' student in the corner who was well on his way to losing himself in his own darkness, no doubt here with his own supply of date rape drugs, and the bright glow coming from the prettiest girl in the room.

O

O

"Oh my!" Belldandy intoned as her eyes spotted the newcomer. She had not thought to see him again and the feelings he brought up were far from welcome. Keichi followed her gaze and saw the latest entrant to the party.

"Oh no" he whispered, "is it too much to ask that a single evening goes by without my life being invaded by demons?"

"What was that bro?" Megumi asked, "Oh my he's dishy." She said, having followed her brother's line of sight. "Any idea-"

"Meg No!" he ordered in his best impression of a patriarchal voice, "You do not want to know that man. Hey where are you going? You come back here right now Young Lady I'm not fin….Oh hell, like anyone listens to me anyway." He finished lamely.

"I do Kei-kun" Belldandy said, smiling as she pulled his hand away from his face. Suddenly all was right with the world, and Keichi answered with a goofy smile that was all his own.

"Uh er that is I um.." he said, she giggled, and it was all downhill from there. Small things like Ranma's presence slipped right away, the two were in love and that was everything.

O

O

"Hi there, can I help you?" Megumi said. On the way over she had rapidly discarded the forward approach she had been planning on. Strangely enough it had seemed like a good idea when she stood by her brother but with that strange smell gone from her nostrils her own character was re-asserting itself. So instead of hitting him with the Morisato version of an amazon glomp she had gotten a drink and taken the time to study him a little. For all the confidence he was projecting the man in question seemed to be at a loss in the crowd. What she wasn't ready for was his sudden aboutface, she almost leapt out of her skin as the man seemed to suddenly be looking straight at her, without ever needing to turn.

For a long second his shades regarded her then he answered, with a voice that was welvet and steel, "Thank you, Morisato-san. I am looking for Wodensen Urd." At the mere sound of his voice Megumi felt a shiver run straight down her spine, it was part fear and part something else entirely. Then the implication of the words sunk in and she could almost hear the plane crashing."

"You're with Urd?" she whispered in a small voice with a faint catch, feeling unusually vulnerable.

"Not exactly Morisato-san" Ranma replied, catching on. "We have only met twice."

"Oh" Megumi replied, trying not to smile too largely.

"But nor am I looking for a relationship" he continued with steely finality.

"Oh" Megumi replied, bouncing back. "Well …where were we?"  
"Urd" Ranma supplied, with a butterfly-causing smile.

"Not here" Megumi replied, once again thrown. Suddenly her mouth was very dry.

"Can I get you a drink while we wait?" he asked, appearing to read her mind.

"No," she argued, "Let me. I won't have to queue," she explained. He nodded, and smiled again in that heart stopping way and she was off. It was only after she got around the bar and was talking to her friend Greg that she realised that she didn't have the faintest idea what he wanted.

"Er, hi Greg can I get a orange juice and a…"

"Sake, strong" interrupted his voice. Megumi turned to find Ranma at the bar, just next to them. Somehow he had reached the bar fast enough to be in just the right place, despite the bar being six deep in most places. As she looked at him she spotted that there was a gap around him as well. In a city where personal space was as much a fiction as thieves honour he had managed to not only jump the queue but also get private space at the bar.

Shaking her head Megumi shrugged it off as yet another weird thing that happened when she was near her brother. She collected the drinks and signalled to Ranma that she would meet him back round the other side.

On the way through she was jostled more than once, and even had her ass playfully grabbed by one guy from the hockey team who had stayed behind for a few drinks, he got kicked in the shin for his effort but that didn't make her butt any less sore.

By the time she found Ranma he was leaning up against a wall in a quiet corner just away from the bar.

"You moved," she accused.

"Don't like crowds" he replied, but she heard more. She was suddenly sure that he had a real reason for disliking groups, and she was equally sure that she didn't want to know what it was.

"Er in that case.." she started to say, only to be hit with a wave of sudden dizziness. Ranma caught her effortlessly, and suddenly she found herself held in his strong arms, and inhaling an intoxicating musk that was all Man.

"You have been drugged Morisato san," he continued, "I suggest you return to where your brother is sitting and ask his girlfriend for some help." She was halfway back before she even realised that she had turned. She looked back and could see no sign of the man she had just been talking to.

By the time she got back to her brother and Bell the dizziness was all but flooring her. Even as Bell and Keichi became aware of her she started to fall. Her brother caught her just before she hit the floor, and just before the darkness closed in she could see the concern. Ironically her last thought was that this would probably get her off the hook with Keichi.

O

O

O

Yamoko Daishi was scared. He had been the janitor of Nekomi Tech's student union for nearly a decade, and for most of that time he had been a model employee. Then he had discovered the wonders of pharmaceuticals, GHB, ryhypnol, and now the latest version, he had used them all and had a secret stash of videos to prove it. The way he looked at it the tarts were one step from whores anyway, he wasn't really taking anything they wouldn't give up if he had just been born a little prettier. So he drugged them, used them and dumped them. But now something had gone wrong.

It wasn't the first time that his quarry had got away from him, part of the skill was knowing when to cut and run, leave the hunt for another day. However this time the man who had helped her hadn't spent any time wondering, hadn't even bothered smelling the drink, he had just looked straight over at him. When the huge man took off his shades Daishi thought he was going to crap himself on the spot. The look the man gave him promised horrible, lingering death and loosened the janitor's bowels on the spot.

"Its not like you did anything really wrong" said the voice of his conscience. "The girls would have probably thanked you for it if you had been prettier. Hell you even gave them the perfect excuse to deny it ever happened, saving their honour-"

Daishi ran, muttering to himself, making up excuses as he went. Unfortunately for him he should have paid a little more attention to where he was going.

"DAMN!" he swore as he found himself faced with a chainlink fence. He had run down an alley, and would have to double back.

He turned, just in time to see Ranma land. He saw the wings, he saw the roiling shadows, he saw the burning pits where there should have been eyes, and he saw the claws of darkness extending from the figure's hands.

"Demian" the figure intoned, in a voice that was half whisper and half roar. Daishi tried to mutter a denial but suddenly his mouth was clogged. Instead of words an evil black tar-like substance vomited forth. The pain was excruciating. When it ended Daishi was left coughing up blood and bile, lying in a pathetic heap on the floor.

That didn't stop him seeing the tar form itself into a demonic shape. It was all tentacles and spines, glistening black in the Tokyo nightlight, its barbed tail swishing a staccato of fear.

"Noooone of Yooour Buisinesssss" the creature hissed. "Man issssss miiiiinnnne, gave himsssself willllinglllyyy to thee darknessss."

"Wrong" Ranma replied, suddenly rippling with dark energies. The demon quickly crossed its arms defensively, but when the dark mauve energy hit it was still thrown into the fence with enough force to buckle the whole thing.

As it picked its bloody self up off the floor a taloned hand grasped it by the back of its spiny head. Ranma's other hand then tore into it with a staccato of clawing swipes, and hard punches. The devil Demian was soon bouncing from wall to wall to floor, propelled by the anger of the figure in black. Each strike pounded more of its substance out, splattering it across the alley like dark molasses. Each strike caused the creature to scream again, and again. Its entire existence reduced to the space between strikes, between pain and agony.

From the floor Daishi watched and whimpered. He had never seen anything so brutal in his life and a sinking feeling in his abused guts told him that he wasn't getting out of this one as easily as he hoped.

Daishi struggled to his feet and ran. He never saw Ranma tear off Demian's longest spine, he never even saw Ranma throw it, he did feel it as it tore through his shoulder, in the back and out the front, and into a dumpster he was trying to move behind. He was left hanging against the bin by his damaged shoulder, in agony. He had never felt such pain, and at that moment was sure that he would never live long enough to feel it again, his bowels loosened and for the first time since he was a child Daishi soiled himself, thoroughly.

"Please, no more" coughed the broken devil from the floor where it lay, "I am just doing my job I.."

"I don't care" Ranma interrupted, and brought his booted foot down on the beast's skull. It crushed like an over-ripe melon, spraying gobbets of darkness across the whole area in a star-burst pattern.

"Now you" Ranma mused in that dark tone that spoke of pain and suffering. As he turned to the whimpering janitor, "What to do with you?"

"On the one hand you were possessed, and therefore not entirely responsible for your actions. On the other you made no effort to resist, and even now you are only sorry you got caught. Let me see.." With that the dark figure grabbed Daishi by the head, clenching his steel hard clawed hands around the pervert's scalp and temples. Pain once more tore through the janitor, it seemed like his entire head was on fire, that there was a spiny creature in his skull crawling about and fighting to get out.

"So" Ranma continued, "Demian didn't lie, you did invite him in. You actually made the deal yourself. You really are filth.

"But at least it makes my job easier," and with that Ranma turned the man's head, rotating it well past the point his spine was willing to go. With a noise like grinding cobbles Daishi's spine cracked. All the way from his collar bone to his skull a spiral break formed, exposing the blood vessels and nerves that the vertebrae protected. Then these too tore, stretched or punctured by wayward fragments of bone.

Daishi screamed one last time as almost every nerve ending in his body screamed one final protest. Then Daishi died, and the demons were waiting for him.


	3. Dark deeds

**Chapter 5 **

"And Stay AWAY!" roared the tall blond woman. She had just stepped in to save the young lady on the ground from what might easily have been a fate worse than death. In a dark alley between two office blocks two representatives of Tokyo's underclass had been intent on taking what they wanted from the young secretary, when out of no where the blond gaijin had appeared. The violence that followed had been hidden by the secretary's own tears but one thing was undeniable, she had been saved and in the nick of time.

"Thank you" she offered with gratitude pouring from her soul while attempting to stand on unsteady legs. "You really are an angel!" However such heartfelt praise had a very odd effect on the female saviour; all of a sudden the blond woman began checking her reflection in a mirror that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"Oh!" she said, after a few moments of nervous examination, as if a light had suddenly come on in her head, "You mean figuratively?"

"Er yes? Ventured the secretary.

"Cool, didn't want to be spotted this soon into my newest assignment" asserted the blond. "Thought for a moment that I had left my wings out…" by now the secretary had moved from gratitude to confusion and was steadily progressing towards fear.

"Er you had better forget I said that" the 'angel' offered. "Just another slightly nutty Tokyo dwelling mortal that's me!"

"Whatever you say" the other girl agreed, slowly backing away. Only to be suddenly stopped, by a long, scarlet, clawed arm.

"Don't go yet my preeetie" rasped a voice from the darkness. "We are only just getting started."

"Who are you?" asked the angel, with more than a tremor of fear in her voice.

"All in good time precious…" the voice answered in a drawn out rasp, casually twisting the secretary's neck through an impossible angle as if to punctuate the words. "Now might be a good time to start screaming little Angelica" the demon offered.

"How do you know my…" Angelica, angel trainee, asked only to be cut off as the demon stepped out of the shadows. Demonic recognition was a required course for all trainee angels but the creature that confronted her was like nothing she had ever heard of. Sheer terror tore through her body, robbing it of all conscious thought. Then the young lady failed for the very first time in her existence: her lips trembled, her bowels emptied and finally sweet unconsciousness claimed her.

"Don't think that's gonna stop me wench" the demon rasped, more than a little angry to be denied his sport, "just so happens I like 'em dirty." He finished before leaning over her and beginning his depravity.

O

O

O

"Can I top you up?" the waitress asked. Ranma was sat in a quiet downtown coffee shop nursing a single cup and thinking. He had arrived a little after the shop had opened, and almost immediately retreated into his own mind, more disturbed than he cared to admit by the events of the previous night. To kill a man was one thing but to want to hurt him as badly as Ranma had wanted to hurt that rapist last night was a different story entirely.

"Excuse me," the waitress ventured again, more than a little unnerved by this brooding figure that had come to occupy the diner's corner booth, "I said can I-

"No thank you Sakura" Ranma replied, interrupting, waving a hand absentmindedly. In reply the woman retreated quickly back the way she had come. Ranma for his part began to sink back into his reverie.

Then all of a sudden he was hit by a feeling of unease. Time seemed to slow, then stop. Even as Ranma's head whipped around he recognised the source; standing in the doorway was a creature he had honestly hoped never to see again. That the demon was wearing human form was little comfort indeed.

"Barrabas!" Ranma spat, even as the demon seemed to skip the space between the door and the demon-touched man. The last time he had seen the jumped up imp had been during one of the nastiest parts of his torture in hell.

"Can't fool you eh?" the creature responded, pulling out a seat.

"What are you-

"doing here?" the beast in man form finished, "what makes you think I'm not here for the coffee?" Ranma just glared in response, fists tightening. "Fine" Barrabas responded, "maybe I am here to see you."

"Barrabas" Ranma began, hate and contempt warring in his voice, "In about three seconds I am going to tear your limbs off and stuff them down your throat!"

"Whoa there matey" the demon replied, "Do that and you'll never know what I came here to say."

"What makes you think that I give a damn what you have to say?" Ranma replied in a growl, staring to rise.

"Even if it concerns that pretty little goddess you've got your eye on?" Barrabas replied in a rush.

"Three!" Ranma offered.

"they are going to kill her" the demon blurted.

"Two"

"they already stole her angel"

"one"

"Gorkadas has got her!" Barrabas yelped, falling backwards off his seat, arms raised wardingly.

"Gorkadas?" Ranma replied, still growling, "where?"

"Here on Midgard" Barrabas croaked out from the floor, "in the dark church on twelfth street." By now the fear was rolling off the demon turned man in waves.

"If you are trying to trick me…." Ranma threatened, eyes burning.

"As hell is my witness" the creature swore. Ranma nodded once and stepped over the hellspawn, heading for the door.

"So I guess there's no chance of another turn with the red-head" Barrabas inquired mockingly, just as Ranma was going to step through the door.

Ranma turned, pulled a sign off the wall, empowered it, and threw it discus style at the half risen demon. It embedded deep in the creature's neck, wedging into its spine.

"Urk" gurgled the demon as it fell to the floor, gargling on its own vital fluids. "Barsthtard."

O

O

O

"Ow, sheesh, my head hurts something rotten!" Urd swore. Despite the fact that midday had come and gone she was just out of bed and seriously regretting her over-indulgence the night before. Even after the dramas of the evening people had managed to make a night of it and Urd had been, as usual, right at the centre of things. She stumbled her way into the shrine's kitchen, to find her sister hard at work. "Next time someone suggests treble Tequila suicide knock me down!"

"The way I remember it," Bell replied, only grinning a little, "that someone was you."

"Yadda yadda" Urd replied dismissively, "details. Now what is that gorgeous smell?"

"I am making something a little special to welcome Angelica" Belldandy replied.

"Angelica?" Urd asked, "oh the Angel cadet," she answered for herself. "Is that today already?"

"Yes Urd" Bell replied, "and we would all appreciate it if you would…" she continued only to be interrupted by a knock at the door.

"I'll get it" came the voice of their little sister-come techno nut, shortly followed by the scampering of feet.

"Oh its You!" came the same voice, this time laden with distaste, "what do you want?" the reply was muffled but the voice oddly familiar.

"I'll see if she wants to talk to you!" Skuld said, before sounding as if she was headed towards the other two goddesses.

"That is hardly the way to treat a guest" Bell admonished as Skuld stepped into the kitchen.

"Even if he's a demon" the pre-teen-goddess answered back only slightly less rudely.

"If he was a demon even…" Bell started, "Oh its Ranma," she concluded.

"Ranma" Urd interrupted suddenly interested, "wonder what he wants?" Before Skuld could even offer her sarcastic reply the eldest sister was already off towards the door.

Standing there was indeed none other than Saotome Ranma, tainted soul and all. In this case he was wearing what Urd considered a very fetching silk suit, plainly designed for flexibility rather than fashion but still form fitting enough to display some of that toned body the goddess was becoming fond of. Because that same goddess was so busy checking out the recent arrival she completely missed the look on his face.

"Bout time" Ranma said, somewhat hurriedly. "Its not like the girly's got all day. Gorkadas ain't exactly the patient type."

"Wha?" Urd replied sensibly. "Girly? Gorkias?"

"Gorkadas" Ranma corrected, "you know, filth demon, greenish, about this high?" Ranma answered, waving his hand above his head, "the one who's got your angel…"

"Oh 'Porky-Ass'" Urd connected. "What makes you think he's got my guardian?"

"Does it matter?" Ranma replied, "WE gotta GO!" he insisted, reaching for her arm.

"Whoa buster" Urd replied, pulling back on the same arm, "my angel is safe and sound. Whoever you've been talking to is obviously mistaken. I'd know if she was in trouble."

"Yeah I guess-" Ranma started, only to be interrupted by a high pitched, child-like scream.

"Skuld!" Urd swore, turning and running.

"Dumb ass imp" Ranma muttered, "can't get anything right, even to save his scrawny hide." Scant seconds later Urd was returning, both her sisters in tow.

"Tell us what you know" she demanded.

"Who and where" Ranma explained, "and that if the girl's gonna stand a hope in heck then we have to go now!"

"You lead!" Urd commanded.

"I've got a better idea" he said, before suddenly flaring his power. Suddenly the earth went cold, as if caught in an instant eclipse. Shadows gathered and the four of them started to rise into the air.

As the sleepy suburb dwindled below them the goddesses could make out the sinister silhouette cast by the tainted man's dark wings, if the touch of his taint had not been bad enough the shape of the shadow chilled all three of them to the core.

"I thought they were all killed in Thor's time" Urd exclaimed.

"They were" Ranma replied in an oddly throaty growl, "but their dark dreams remain for those brave enough to touch them."

"Dragon" Skuld muttered in terrified awe.


	4. Trapped?

**Chapter 4 The trap**

"Girls" the bitch said, "We have a problem!"

"Oh really?" Ami answered, irony dripping from her words. She was sat in a comfy chair in the hospital 'family room.' Somewhere off to her left Michuru had been sleeping, having finally let exhaustion force her from her lover's side. From nowhere the third member of their little tragic trio. From the catch in the older (much older) woman's voice Ami had been immediately able to tell that she too was far from recovered. When Pluto took her first few steps, Ami had heard the effort that it had taken and part of her smiled.

"Ami please," Pluto entreatied. "I have something important to say."

"Please Setsuna" Michuru said, still hoarse from her continual weeping, "tell us."

"A girl needs our help," Setsuna said, already dreading the reply.

"Our help?" Ami laughed, "if she's that far up the creek then please lets go give her a paddle."

"Ami-" Setsuna started.

"I'll just hop on my white horse and we'll ride to the rescue,"

"Ami-"

"Now where did I put it? Can't see the bastard anywhere,"

"Ami-"

"Oh wait I know why I can't see it. It's because I'm fucking blind!" Ami shouted in what she hoped was the direction of the eldest senshi.

"Ami" Michuru corrected, "There's no need for that sort of language!"

"No?" she asked, "are we less screwed than I thought, no it still seems..." Ami trailed off muttering.

"She's been captured by a Demon who intends to use her to breed a new kind of Yoruma." Pluto explained quietly. "She needs our help!"

"Demon" Michuru gasped, "like the one that..."

"Yes," Pluto agreed quietly.

"Uh am I missing something here," Ami asked, "or didn't the last one we meet fuck us all up?"

"Ami-"

"And now you want the three of us to go and take one on?" Ami exclaimed incredulous, "Are you serious."

"Ami!" Pluto insisted, but was still slightly surprised that it worked. "If we don't help her who will?"

o

o

o

"There it is" Ranma growled pointing with his chin/maw, "that's the place I'm told she's at." He dragged his arms/wings in and came to a landing on the roof. Skuld immediately fell to her knees and began kissing the floor. Belldandy staggered off to one side, feeling more than a little queasy. Urd on the other hand was much more used to the dark touch and merely leant on Ranma for support.

"They're grateful really they are," she told him, only a little unsteady.

"What makes you think I care" Ranma rasped, his throat still raw. "You are here cuz nobody deserves Gorkadas. Don't think for one goddamn moment that I feel any better about being near you than your sister does about me."

"But the party" Urd asked, suddenly lost.

"I had my reasons," Ranma rasped, rotating and cracking his neck.

"That's it?" she demanded "You had your reasons?"

"Urd-dono" Ranma rasped, "zip it!" He moved over to the edge, overlooking the rest of the building. "Ladies, three floors below us an innocent little godling is getting gang raped by demons. But that's not the worst bit, the worst bit is that they are just warming her up for the main event. Now feel free to wallow in your righteousness a little longer, make a demonstration of how uncomfortable you just were, but remember what your pride is costing the girl."

"That isn't fair!" Urd protested.

"Newsflash, nothing in this life is" Ranma said, and then dropped off the building, coat flaring.

O

o

He dropped two floors and then grabbed hold of a shadow and swung in. The old window cascaded inwards around him, edgings and all. He didn't stop, instead tucking into a roll and flying clear across the room. He landed in a crouch, right hand cocked back.

"Here I come you fat bastard" he growled, then punched. There was a smash, the floor erupted into shards and Ranma dropped into a scene straight from hell.

The room was illuminated by thirteen burning barrels laid out in occult scheme. On a raised 'altar' the angel lay naked and spread-eagled, bloody from knee to navel. Around her flocked a pack of gibbering demons, naked and oozing. Lording over them all was Gorkadas, sat on a throne of bent metal, adorned with scraps of skin and flesh, some of it still bearing the female clothing it had in life. Firelight framed him, given off by twin barrels either side of his throne. He himself was an immensely obese creature, coloured in purples and blues. From his head protruded a single yellowed horn and covering his vile folds was a sheen of sweat that made him shine in the firelight. His fingers were short and his claws little more than hardened, blackened nails. His mouth was wide and drooling, concealing a live pink tongue and evil yellow teeth. Worst of all were his eyes, glowing yellow pits of lust and hatred.

Ranma landed neatly ontop of a long disused process machine, took the time to shrug off his coat and then leapt into the fray. As he jumped long claws of darkness seemed to coalesce, extending from his fingers like the claws of a wolverine.

Ranma's world became one of whirling death. He dodged and weaved, spreading violent, bloody death as he went. Each sweep of his arms claimed the mortal existence of at least one of the beasts, shredding their forms and spraying their vital fluids in wide pastel arcs. But they kept coming, piling at him with no regard at all for their fallen comrades, or even their own fates.

He was dimly aware of the arrival of the Norns, somewhere in the distance he could hear them attempting to freeze, stun and confuse their way through the throng. He tried hard not to wish them harm, even though he was coming to believe that was what it would take to wake the girls up. Then a new call came though the air.

"Deep submerge!" cried a voice, filled with hate and pain. Distantly Ranma heard the scream of demons as the pure water power broke their bodies. Still he had no time to investigate, instead his vicious dance of death continued, unrelenting.

Another voice called some other challenge, and more demons died, but the flow continued.

Then everything changed.

"Time stop!" screamed a voice. Little did any of the others know just what it had cost the woman using the power to invoke it. Not only was she throwing away millennia of tradition but betraying oaths she had made to people she could never seek redemption from. It was a cold admission of failure and the pain in her voice as she pronounced it could have sunk ships.

However it had a dramatic effect. All of a sudden everything seemed to stop, from the arcing sprays of demon blood to the painful gasps of the angel imprisoned on the altar. Evem the light itself seemed to pool, leaving everything rendered only in shades of grey. All was still all was silent.

Then a laugh cut through the still air, a vicious evil belly laugh that spoke of mockery and mirth.

"For a moment I thought you would not come, star slut!" Gorkadas proclaimed. "I was starting to worry that I had taken all these precautions for nothing!" Again the beast laughed, slowly standing from his grisly throne.

"My master will be so happy. And you have delivered me some other treats as well, so very kind of you!" he leered.

"Dead scream!" Pluto pronounced, hurling a ball of death at the beast that mocked.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" it laughed, not even bothering to shield itself. "You don't get it do you?" he mocked, "Your powers are useless against me! As long as I possess the Charm of Ages no power of time may touch me! Unfortunately for you the same cannot be said for my powers and you or your friends!" Again he broke off into that hideous laugh.

Pluto was sacred, the tears of shame burnt hot trails down her face. All for nothing! All of it, her final effort, the break with her honour, all of it was for nothing. All she had done was deliver the last of the senshi to the demons that sought them.

"And as fore the girl," the beast mocked, clenching his fist and shattering a glass figure "now she's dead too. She proved surprisingly frail. It was... disappointing. Her soul was trapped in the husk but now even that is gone!" And again the beast laughed.

Then everything changed. As the beast strode through its minions, pushing their bodies aside from nowhere came a flash of darkness. In the grey world of timelessness a burning bubble of darkness expanded, surrounding the revealed form of a young man. Gorkadas turned to look and an expression of pure fear crossed his features. Wings of darkness expanded from the dark man's back, claws from his hands and slowly he raised his face. His eyes were flames of shadow.

"What you thought the petty tricks of mortals would stop me?" the figure said in a voice that seemed to echo around the room. "Gorkidas, really, the power of one such as I is not so easily contained!"

Gorkidas swore in the way only demons could, the very air was reviled by the words he drooled. "This is nothing to do with you!" he burbled. "You have no business here!"

"Gorkadas," Ranma continued, "for our history alone I would kill thee. But you also seem to have made the mistake of hurting an innocent maid. That sort of thing annoys me."

"Take her" Gorkadas offered, "You can even have the senshi sluts but-"

"But what filth?" Ranma said, moving slowly forward, "let you live? I. Think. Not."

Suddenly the dark avenger was airborne, shadowed limbs trailing. Gorkidas raised his meaty limbs in defence but it was cear from the outset that he was no match for his opponent. Piece by piece, cut by cut Ranma carved the beast into bloody chunks.

At the end the beast lay knelt at his tormentors feet, blind in one eye, bleeding from enough cuts to kill a herd of elephants and sobbing like a spurned child.

"Please" it begged, "Please!"

"No" Ranma replied simply and punched his clawed fist up through the beast's face and out of the back. It's life essence finally severed it fell to the floor, a puddle of oozing ichor.

"Oh my!" exclaimed Pluto, gagging slightly at the scene.

O

o

When the spell ended not a single one of the host remained standing, all were slowly dissolving into mush, the bodies of the mortals they had inhabited destroyed by their encounter with the power of hell.

Seven figures wwere left standing in a room that stank of death, gore and corruption. One was being violently ill, the others slowly ambled towards the centre of the room.

"Who are you?" Pluto demanded, still leading Mercury with her off hand.

"Saotome Ranma" the dark man offered. "And you are the Sailor Senshi?"

"Hai" agreed Pluto.

"You came to help the girl?" he asked.

"Hai" Pluto agreed. He nodded as if it confirmed something he already knew.

"Ranma-" Urd began.

"Do Not Talk To Me!" he replied, his back still turned to them.

"But-"

"But What!" he demanded, "Over there is the slowly cooling body of a girl any of you could have saved, had you been faster. Had you used your powers instead of holding back. Well there is your reward!" he said pointing to the body.

"Ranma!" exclaimed a hurt Urd, knowing that Bell would already be feeling bad.

"No!" he said, "No more, you chose your path, and I will have no more to do with it!" Then he turned to the senshi. "You, on the other hand, have earnt my respect today. You I will help. Come we will talk more." With that he offered out his hand and Pluto found herself looking into the deepest darkest eyes she had ever known. Before she could resist she, mercury and Neptune were swept up and away. Off into the nighted sky, carried on the wings of an ancient power.


	5. Pact

**Chapter 5: Pacts with Darkness**.

The cold night air whipped around the quartet as they flew through the air above Tokyo. Suddenly isolated from the noises of the city and saved from the certain doom she had been resigned to Setsuna Meiou found herself relaxing. The gentle rhythmic thrumming of great wings lulled her towards some much needed sleep.

For Neptune the trip was something else entirely, she could feel the dark energies that flowed around them and for the first time in her life she craved the darkness. In her mind's eye she could see the power that their new 'benefactor' had wielded it and wanted that power. It meant being an aggressor not a victim, never being helpless again. In the darkness of night she clenched her fists and swore to get that power, whatever the cost.

Ami was scared, operating beyond rational thought. The unending darkness, the unfamiliar noises, and the smells, had combined with the certain knowledge of deadly peril to make this the second worst day of her life. Then there had come deliverance, in the form of this man, uniquely confident. A rock in the storm. Below her hand his bicep rippled again and she heard the beat of wings.

Ranma brought them down atop a darkened towerblock, with nothing between them and the starry sky. He set them down as gently as he could, trying to ignore the drumming of his heart, the pounding in his veins. It was always this way after a fight, the feeling was a drug to beat anything sold on the streets. Of course Ranma knew that a lot of the emotion beating against the walls of his mind was from the dragon's dream, to use its power was to let it into your essence and he had used it too much this night already.

"We have arrived," he growled from deep beyond the back of his throat. He took a few steps away from the trio and tried again to calm himself, letting out a long breath that steamed in the night.

The three girls sat, one confused and sleepy, another lost and reaching out for any contact, the third focussed and determined. Ami huddled into Setsuna's side feeling suddenly bereft, as if something important to her had suddenly gone leaving only an indescribable need.

"You are the Sailor Senshi of Juuban" Ranma said. "You defeated a power by the name of Mettalia and many more besides."

"We were," Ami said, bitterness and sorrow in her voice.

"Then something happened," Ranma concluded, "You met one you weren't prepared for and it went wrong."

"You were adults playing a child's game," Ranma concluded, "only your opponent didn't know the rules." Silent tears began running down Ami's face. "He hurt you, took something from you."

"Our friends, our family, died" Setsuna said, close to tears. "We just couldn't …"

"We weren't strong enough!" Michuru said with iron in her voice.

"Yet you came for the little angel" Ranma noted, "knowing the odds you still came."  
"We couldn't just stand by. We had to do something" Ami sobbed.

"And you did," Ranma said with something akin to respect in his voice. Setsuna grimaced.

"If it hadn't been for you…" Setsuna said, "breaking free of the temporal halt."

"The demon's trap might of worked" Ranma concluded. "Lucky for us all that I met those Norns and developed some protection against them." He muttered to himself.

"Ranma-sama?" Michuru asked, having picked up the name from his argument with the goddess.

"There is something more you haven't told me" Ranma rounded on them, eyes shining.

"They took one of us," Setsuna said, "our heart."

"Our princess" Ami added. Suddenly Ranma was still. He sat, facing them.

"Tell me!" he commanded, suddenly focussed.

And so piece by piece they did. They told him of the end of a dream, of the dying of a entire future. They told him of the pain and fear and the loss. The dark hole they had fallen into and that they could see no light.

By the end of the tale the tears had stopped, the pain was muted, and a new resolve had taken root in their heart. For a long moment there was silence, the girls could feel a palpable aura of hard thought coming from the man.

"I need to see your friends" He concluded, standing.

"What? Why?" Michuru asked, suddenly confused.

"You have eternal souls, I felt them as you entered the room" Ranma explained. "Your friends may be suffering more than you think," He finished.

"No!" exclaimed Pluto.

"What?" demanded Ami, not wanting to believe what she was hearing.

"You have died before," Ranma began.

"Twice," Michuru stated, the steel back.

"And yet you're still here!" Ranma finished. "So something is different this time. The demon you describe is way too high up the pecking order to have been sent out on some random reaving. He was after something, and from what Gorkidas said I can only believe it was you."  
"But he …" Michuru said, steel fading, "It could have…"

"Yes" Ranma agreed, compassion in his voice, "but this way hurt more. To a demon of his calibre that is the key."

"So he let us live" Ami said, having already guessed the truth, "to hurt us."

Ranma nodded and then remembering Ami said "hai."

"Bastard!" Ami swore.

"How is it you know so much about them?" Pluto asked, more interested than concerned.

"Because my father sold me to one" Ranma said evenly, "and I spent an age as their plaything."

"Then you…"

"Then from the pit I was in I found the strength to turn on them" Ranma said, fist clenching, "It cost me a price beyond measure, but I made them pay!"

"Now where are the bodies of your fallen friends?" Ranma said, standing.

"Wait," Setsuna commanded. "What's exactly on offer here?"

"I intend to turn you into the force I need to assault the very depths of hell!" Ranma told them, "We will find the souls of your friends, your captive princess and we will free them. By the time we are finished we will have shaked Hell's foundations and they will rue the day they dared to Target you and yours!"

O

O

O

The doorbell rang long. Ranma was less than happy about where he was but simply put it was the only way he could think of to do what needed to be done. So here he was, back at the Norn's temple.

"Hello" said the skinny boy who answered the door, a small tremor in his voice.

"I need to talk to Urd" Ranma intoned, trying to hide his frustration.

"I'll see if she's in," the boy said, bolting away inside, leaving the door flapping behind him.

Ranma waited, fists clenching and unclenching, barely resisting the temptation to leave. He was once again wearing his dark suit and long jacket combo, with gloves and shades to hide his 'darker' aspects. If she gloated just a bit then…. Suddenly from behind him to his left there was a none-too-polite cough. Ranma turned, already recognising the signature.

"Mara!" he growled and indeed there she stood, biker leathers and all. He pulled the shade from his eyes and prepeared to make good his promise.

"Whoa Big boy!" she said, raising her hands wardingly. "Pax romanis and all that!"

"Speak!" Ranma demanded.

"I just wanted to make sure you knew who you were dealing with," the demoness said. "What type of people you were dealing with."

"Go on," Ranma said, barely restraining the urge to tear this creature before him to pieces. Mara for her part saw the black burning of his aura matched in his eyes and bottled it.

"Er. Just read it okay," she said, throwing a manila folder at the figure in front of her. Then she 'ported' out as fast as her powers could carry her.

Back in the safety of her hang out she placed her back firmly against a wall and let out a long breath. "Damn but he's sexy when he's angry" she muttered trying to still her beating heart that was only partly fear.

"Bitch" Ranma growled, looking at the folder.

_Ydraggsil mission report MMMCLIIVI. Saotome Ranma._

The words hit him like a thunderbolt.

"Ranma" interrupted a voice, Urd.

"What" he growled.

"Er, you tell me?" Urd said. She was standing at her door and looking at him with something like confusion on her face.

"Tell you what?" he demanded.

"Why you're here?" Urd suggested.

"Oh, yeah!" Ranma admitted, deflating a little. "I need your help!"

"Well if you put it like that" Urd said, irony dripping from her voice. Then she turned to leave.

"Wait!" Ranma ordered, but Urd did not turn back around. "It's not for me," he said, "its for the senshi."

"Go on" she said turning back slowly.

"I need you to locate a few things for me, I mean them," Ranma explained, anger all gone now, he reached into his jacket for a list.

"Why?" Urd asked, taking the list.

"Firepower" Ranma offered, "Can you do it?"

"Yes" Urd replied, scanning the list, "I think I can. But the question is" she said, looking back to Ranma, "what's in it for me?"

"Fucking goddesses!" Ranma growled in low demonic, completely forgetting Urd's peculiar origins.

"I was thinking dinner" Urd corrected, "but if you like…"

"What?" Ranma demanded confused.

"Dinner, Saturday, seven thirty, your treat" she said with a smile before leaving.

"Oneesan how could you?" demanded her littlest sister "After what he said to us-"

"Because" Urd said, and then went into her room without finishing the statement.

"Do you ever think with anything above the waist?" Skuld screamed at her sister's closing door.

Meanwhile, unobserved, Bell stood at the window of the living room, white as a sheet and biting her trembling lip. She had seen what Mara had given the demon touched man and now she was close to tears.

O

O

O

Ranma returned to his family home over the rooftops, mind spinning. As he touched down in the yard he could hear the sound of combat from the Dojo. He listened for a moment then strode over. Old habits forced him to bow to the shrine before entering but once inside things were very different from tradition.

Sailor Pluto was beating seven shades of heck out of Sailor Neptune. Both were armed with staff weapons from the dojo stores, and had obviously been practicing for some time.

"No teishi" Ranma interrupted, stopping the two of them. "You are not helping!" he said to Neptune. "Fight! And fight hard, she can take it! Now start again!" The two girls nodded and began again, a display of only slightly controlled aggression. Their staffs smacked off eqach other in a rapid staccato of focussed violence. Through it all Ranma paced around the sidelines, giving encouragement or correction wherever necessary, driving them harder and harder.

"Stop!" he called. "This is not working!" the girls looked at him shamefaced. "You are fighting like children again. The aim is not to make a nice noise it is to Kill your opponent." With that he strode into the stores, opening them with a wave of his hand. He returned moments later with two naginata. He threw one to each of the girls.

"Now try!" he commanded. The girls took one look at the razor sharp blades and began somewhat gingerly. Ranma meanwhile went and picked up a short hardwood baton.

"Holy shit!" Pluto swore as Michuru suddenly dropped to the floor, only to be cut off as Ranma smacked the baton across her face. "You think that hurts?" he demanded at the stunned, floored girls. "Think how much worse it hurts having demonic claws tear your soul out!"

"You friends are even as we speak being tortured in ways you cannot imagine! Yet you waste time! Get up and do it right, this is your only warning, from here on out, you do it wrong, you'll feel it! Now begin!"

It was harsh, very harsh but it worked. The two girls shared a look and then went at each other with barely controlled ferocity. Ranma nodded and began circling again, baton ready to correct any infraction.

"Higher!" smack

"Rotate the left!" smack

"Sloppy!" smack

"Faster!" smack

"Faster!" smack

Then suddenly they hit their groove. If one senshi hit it before the other the difference was immaterial because all of a sudden the two shifted. All hesitation, all uncertainty disappeared to be replaced by that fluid grace of warriors perfectly in tune with their weapons.

Ranma stood back and for the first time that day… smiled.

o

o

o

Nodoka laid the last bowl down on the table and sat herself. The girls quickly blessed the food and soon all were loading their plates. "That's the last" she said.

"This food is fantastic!" Michuru complimented, "I haven't had home cooked food in days!" She was eating with difficulty, every stretch of her torso sent stabbing pains up her sides, and her right hand was already staring to swell.

"Mmmm" Ami agreed, eating her food with difficulty for an entirely different reason. Setsuna mumbled her agreement.

Unintentionally all eyes turned to Ranma, the last diner silent. They found him lost in thought, he looked up, saw their scrutiny and mumbled his agreement. Then turned to Ami.

"Have you had any luck tracking down an answer?" he asked.

"Not really," Ami admitted, "there are plenty of mentions of blind gods but very little mention of cured ones."

"Then perhaps we should look in different directions" he mused.

"Like?" Ami asked.

"I'm not sure," he admitted.

"Maybe we could heal the eyes?" Setsuna suggested with a grimace as her bruised jaw complained.

"They were destroyed by demonic energy," Ranma explained, shaking his head slightly, "We would need an item of incredible power to achieve anything in the time we've got."

"There are many stories of blind men having guides to help them" Nodoka offered.

"I would rather Ami did not have to rely on another," Ranma said, "but that may yet be our best answer.

"If magic can't provide the answer then perhaps science will," Nodoka mused.

"Any attempt to cure through…." Ranma began but trailed off.

"What?" Ami demanded, "You've thought of something haven't you?"

"When you couldn't use your computer what did you do?" he asked.  
"I downloaded a voice recognition interface" Ami said.

"A new interface?" Setsuna guessed, "that's your answer?"

"It might just work," Ami whispered.


	6. Proper Preparation

**Chapter 6: Proper preparation prevents.**

"Are you sure this will work?" Ranma asked the blind avatar of Mercury.

"About seventy five percent," she replied. The two of them were kneeling in the dojo. It was already closing on midnight and the only light was she by the moon and stars visible through the open doorway. Ami was wearing a blue yukata bound at the waist by a simple red cord., her eyes were resolute if unfixed. Ranma was wearing a black kimono, dragons coiling upon it and was obviously concerned.

"We should begin" Ami insisted. Ranma took a moment to steel himself and then began centring himself.

"Ready!" he said as the familiar calm fell across his person.

"Ready" replied Ami, trying to hide the waver in her voice. She, more than him knew the risks of what they were attempting. She had seen the dead husks of people that they had failed to save after undergoing half of this procedure and the Mercury computer had been all too adept at pointing out the probabilities of catastrophic failure.

Ranma reached out with his power, channelling it through an outstretched palm. Using his power in this way was not something he had ever expected to be doing but the senshi seemed to know what she was asking. Gently he focused his energies on the very core of the girl sitting opposite him, locating the hard centre of her essence. Then with a wrench he pulled it forward and out.

Ami screamed once and slumped forward. A pure golden light rushed from her chest, trailing tiny motes of golden dew.

Her very soul floated, sparkling between them. Even as it rotated both of them could make out the dark scar running across it, permanent evidence of her encounter with the demon that killed her friends.

"You must be careful" Ami whispered through drying lips, "do not hide the computer within, you must blend…"

Ranma glanced at her slumping form and raised the computer in question from by his side and leaned towards the soul. But even aqs he approached he could see the shadow of his taint falling across the purity that he observed.

"Damn!" he cursed. He should have anticipated this. "Setsuna!" he called, his voice carried on empowered wings.

What seemed like precious minutes later the senshi of Time appeared in the doorway to say she was shocked would have been one of life's most profound understatements. Ranma however didn't give her the time to worry.

"You need to hold the soul now!" he commanded in his best sensei voice. Setsuna was obeying before her mind managed to process the scene.

"What's going on-" she began, suspicion starting to alarm her.

"Hush!" Ranma demanded, "Concentrating!" He pulled in his power as hard as he could, reigning in his aura, burying it deep within himself. Unkown to him this provided Setsuna with a true view of his form, undisguised for the first time since they had met. The sight nearly turned her stomach. Instead of the darkly handsome man she had come to know and admire there sat the broken, twisted form of the mortal who defied hell. Scars overlaid scars, burning lights looked out from destroyed sockets where the man's eyes should have been, only tiny tufts of hair remained between the scarring on the man's scalp and the mouth was an elongated wound in the scarred mess of a ruined face.

With his power reigned in Ranma reached out the computer in a broken hand and carefully tried to blend the computer into the stilled soul. Fortunately Mercury had set up a protocol to activate. First the computer flared bright, its tone moving to match the glow of Ami's soul, then the two of them began to pulse in unison. Finally the computer slid gently into the glowing orb of Ami's essence. Ranma released it and let it drift in the final part under it s own steam. Gritting his teeth he sat back and slowly let his power expand.

Setsuna heard his bones crunching, grinding and clicking back into place, watched the skin stretch smooth and push back into place. Her stomach churned, her bile rose and she had to turn her face away before she sprayed her dinner all over the dojo.

"Setsuna" Ranma coughed through dry lips, "push the soul back into place!"

"Hai" she agreed and complied. Ami sucked in a huge breath and then …had a fit. The senshi of Mercury fell to the floor and began twitching and spasming randomly. Her eyelids fluttered constantly, revealing only the whites visible beneath.

"Holy!" Setsuna swore, backing off, before rapidly changingher mind and moving to tyr an help.

"No!" Ranma commanded. "she said this might happen. Just give her some room. She has to face this part herself."

"But her head, she might-"

"No Setsuna" Ranma chided, slowly easing himself up, "let her be. Have some faith in your friends." With that he retreated to the door, stretching his limbs out and slowly rotating his neck. Setsuna looked once at the calming form of her friend and followed Ranma.

"I'm sorry" she said, "I'm just not used to this…"

"Setsuna" Ranma said, "None of us are. But we do need to pull together. This is no time to fall apart, too many peoples' futures rely on us." For a long moment silence reigned. Then Setsuna broke it.

"Why?" she asked, "Why do you do this? We are entrusted with this world since ancient times, but you-"

"What's in it for me?" Ranma asked gently. He motioned for her to sit on a rock next to the ornamental pond and took a seat next to her. "They hurt me really badly when they had me" he began. Setsuna went to interrupt, to tell him he didn't need to ell her, to save him the pain, bvut he stopped her with an open palm and continued. "But the physical stuff was only part of the story. "They always found new ways to make it hurt but to be honest you can cope with that; pain is, at the end of the day, a figment of your imagination. So they found other ways to hurt you. Little things like letting you make friends with another prisoner, then turning you against each other, making you betray one another, letting you see the hate in their eyes and know that you put it there. They let me cultivate a pet, in between the stripping of my skin and the abuse they let me raise a tiny creature, it was small, green and barely sentient. Then they tricked it, turned it against me, I lashed out and then they revealed their tricks, caught us both in a cycle of guilt and hate.

"It went on like that for decades, little bright spots given to you so you could truly appreciate the horror of the situation. They let you lift yourself up so they can knock you down again. So sooner or later you stop trying, you lie their broken and bloody and wallow in your own pain and despair. Believe me I was there more times than I could count, all hope gone, surrendering to my fate.

"The difference was I picked myself back up again. Each and every time I found my strength again and fought for the light. It amused them no end.

"During one of those darkest times I was looking for a reason to bother and I made a promise to myself. I promised that I wouldn't give up, wouldn't stop trying to…"

"And this is part of that" Setsuna guessed, "You're fighting them to prove you haven't given up."

"That's part of it" Ranma agreed.

"And so are we" Setsuna guessed, "we're the latest version of the little green beast. Pets" this time it was her turn to stop him interrupting. "Okay, more not pets, but you get the idea. We are your attempt to ad some life to your life."

"That's not-"

"the way you see it" Setsuna replied, "that doesn't make it any less true." She finished rising from her seat, "or any less important. Don't get me wrong Saotome-san," she continued, "If that is what you need then I for one am more than happy to help. And if you find that you need more then perhaps that too might be do-able." She finished with a look from her dark eyes that hinted of hidden depths.

"Whooo" Ranma whispered to himself, now alone in the nighted garden.

O

O

O

"Right ladies we need to start planning," Ranma began. He, Neptune and Pluto were sat in the dining room having just cleared breakfast away. "First the uniforms," he began.

"What's wrong with the uniforms?" Pluto asked.

"We are going to be crossing the plains of Hell to get to the fortress, go dressed like that and every lust demon in hell will be trying to paw you before you have gone six feet." Ranma explained, "and besides they are hardly the most practical of fighting outfilts."  
"Huh?" Neptune asked, never having had a problem with them.

"Stiletto heels and skirts so short they barely cover your underwear," Ranma sneered, " not to mention that the colour schemes are designed for anything but camouflage. Added to that the protection they provide proved less than adequate. No girls, we need something not only more subtle but also something with a little more stopping power."

"I think I may have an answer" interrupted a new voice. It had an odd reverberation to it, a hint of something artificial. The trio turned to look, only to find a very changed Sailor Mercury regarding them. She stood there in the doorway to the yard, wearing her blue yukata but beneath it a new silvery pattern could be seen on her skin, a pattern bearing a marked resemblance to the inner workings of a computer. At her temple a pair plug ports could be seen, dull gun-metal grey in stark contrast to her light skin.

"Ami!" Neptune exclaimed.

"Ami?" Setsuna echoed.

"Welcome back" Ranma offered, waving a hand to indicate that she could take a seat. Ami nodded once and knelt into the proffered space with all the grace and precision that they expected of her, but this time there was just an extra edge, was she just a little bit less graceful and a little bit more precise. Ranma nodded, prompting her to explain.

"With my new method of interface I have come across several hidden features. I have come across a secret fileset on the computer. Hidden below this city is the last fortress. When Earth fell to the enemy all those centuries ago it was neither as sudden nor as complete as history tells us. One fortress held out for much longer than the rest of the planet, fought to the last and when they fell, rather than let the fortress be claimed by the enemy they sealed it. With explosives and through an effort of will they closed the fortress. What the file tells me is that the defenders hoped to save some of the contents of that castle, so they left the underground central chamber intact, in the sincere hope that it would take so long for the enemy to excavate to that depth that the Lunar forces would prevent them. The reason they fought so hard was that this was not just any fortress, it was the Lunar bunker: a backup for much of the military structure of the moon. Undoubtedly it has been breached since the fall I postulate that it is the source of much of what the moon cats provided for us."

"Moon cats?" Ranma asked.

"Lunar advisors," Setsuna explained, "they were cryo-frozen and revived to help the senshi of our time."

"Where are they now?" he asked.

"To be honest we sort of expected them to turn up before now," Neptune admitted. "I haven't seen them since before the fight when we met you."

"There is a high probability that they have assessed Saotome-san to be a threat" Ami offered, "it is likely that they are even now preparing a plan to 'rescue us'." For a moment the four of them considered the picture of two gun-toting cats kicking the door down and attacking them kung-foo style.

Saotome Nodoka walked into her front room to find her new house guests silently sharing some joke. "I'm going out" she announced, "is there anything else we need?"

"No thank you" Ranma replied, "we'll get what we need later."

O

O

O

Midnight found a quartet of blacked out figures breaking into the Juban mall. Each lock and alarm fell rapidly by the wayside as the newly 'enhanced' Mercury interfaced, scanned of electromagnetically manipulated them.

Finally they broke into the hair salon that used to be the arcade. They fanned out in a tactical pattern, leaving Ranma and Ami to use their unique abilities search for the entrance.

"Here" Ami called, pointing at a wall with an outstretched arm. All eyes turned to look for a moment then returned to their stations. Ami moved out to cover another angle, letting Ranma move to the wall.

The demon-touched artist leant his palms into the wall and concentrated. Dark energy flowed around him, dancing like black lightning. Then it was gone and the man stood back as if to admire his handiwork. A second later a five foot hole opened in the wall, the substance of it crumbling like powdered sand.

As the air once more disturbed the long forgotten corridors of an ancient fortress an unearthly howl resounded from an unhuman throat.

"We move!" Ranma commanded and led the way into the hole and the future. Behind him the senshi marched, silent and determined.


	7. Enter the deep

Prices Paid 7: the lost citadel.

The darkness was absolute, for any other group this might have been a serious hindrance but the magical girls and their new ally barely noticed the dimming. Ami's new eyes more than capable of seeing without light, Ranma's eyes more than accustomed to a deeper darkness and the other two gifted with items whose glow revealed all they needed.

As the quartet advance they passed the ruined signs of war, stalagmite encrusted tunnels that were littered with the remains of battles fought before human history as they knew it. Here and there the columns had grown to pierce the bodies of the fallen, lifting them up in cruel parodies of life. The procession was nothing if not eerie. However eerie was a lot more manageable than deadly.

Ami was the first to notice the signs, on the floor she spotted the cautious tracks of moon cats. This was nothing unexpected, the surprise was in how new the prints were.

"Fresh" Ami intoned, the others stopped and then nodded their response, each face set in a grim mask.

Ahead the corridor widened into a larger chamber, one that even now seemed to echo with the noise of the battle that had raged within. The ghosts of the dead were all too close. Ranma waved a hand, signalling for the girls to fan out. The girls obeyed, weapons readied.

It was unnecessary, the room, but for the detritus of battle, was deserted. The team let out a slow breath of relief, the first hurdles seemingly behind them. Nevertheless not one broke the professional silence or stood down from their alert bearing. Much had changed since the heady days of their youth.

Across the chamber a large steel door loomed, bound in ancient metals and re-enforced with magic against all intruders, and enemies, including time itself. The team approached, and took up covering positions from safe locations, allowing Ami to scan the door more thoroughly.

"The magic is intact, the door will resist our attempts" she informed them in her oddly mechanical voice, "we must discover a key or an alternative."

"The cats passed" Pluto broke in, causing a re-evaluation.

"I have found their way" Ami replied, pointing a hand at one corner of the door, it blinked, an illusion shedding. Set into it was what appeared all purposes to be a cat flap. More than one face split into a wry smile.

"Not much use to us?" offered Neptune, not entirely sure. She turned to Ranma. He in turn shrugged, nothing sprung to mind. He was only;y too aware that the defences of the site were purpose built to defend against the sort of power he wielded.

"It couldn't be that simple" Pluto murmerred, causing all eyes to fix on her. "I remember a door like this on the moon." she offered in reply to the silent question, "there was a latch on the inside to allow rapid exit.." Ranma waved her forwards, she nodded once and moved to the diminutive door. The others turned back to their watch positions.

Setsuna was forced to lie on the floor, pushing her whole arm through the flap. Such was the change that had come over her that she did not even register the dirt that immediately stained her uniform. She used her staff like a long arm, looping the heart shaped end over the catch release and pulling. Which is when things started to go wrong.

Defences long dormant reactivated on the opening of the door. They immediately deployed against the unidentified interlopers, blazing bright lasers at their fragile forms. Even worse the door swung open with pneumatic force, and with Pluto's arm still through it.

Even as Setsuna's cry of agony rent the air the others were reacting to the new danger. Ranma drew his cloak of shadows around the team, warding them from one side at least. Ami fell back to one knee, absorbed in her sudden battle against the recognition software. Which left Neptune to defends the rest of them. She flicked up an ancient breast plate from the floor and used it as a makeshift shield, only to find that it soon warmed up.

Pluto's long scream continued but nobody was able to help as they continued their own fight for survival. Ranma lashed out with a wing-tip, destroying emplacement after emplacement as they continued to fire their deadly light. Ami crashed through ward after ward, firewall and encryptor, with brutal efficiency she was stripping the system of its defences, scenting victory her lip curled up in a small smile, one that was far from the sort she used to wear.

Neptune held the armour, it was all she could do and she knew it. To drop it would leave all of them unshielded, however she didn't need to look at her hands to know the cost it was exacting, she could smell it and the agony was near mind-numbing.

"Got you" Ami crowed, the defences cutting out all but simultaneously.

The sudden silence was oppressive. It took each of the team precious heartbeats to realise what was missing. By that point Pluto had slipped deeper into shock. Ami was the first to reach her, Ranma a few steps behind. Neptune just collapsed where she stood, literally peeling her hands from the cooling armour.

"He suit will keep her stable" Ami reported, watching the readouts that only she could see. Ranma nodded and tried to ignore the vast amount of blood that covered every surface in the area. The senshi's arm was sheared at the shoulder, crushed apart by the swinging door, leaving only tatters of flesh trapped between metal sheeting to connect the guardian with her limb.

"We cannot leave her here alone" he mused, turning to Neptune, he too had smelled her flesh. "Can you still fight?" he asked. A pained nod was his reply.

"good" he agreed, "Mercury, you're with me" and with that he strode through the door. Behind him Neptune smiled through her pain, it was damn good to be trusted at her word. Now if only she had a way to shut out the goddamn pain.

Inside the facility the walls remained pristine. They gleamed bronze in the light shed by flickering lamps set into the ceiling and around the walls hung ancient drapes, preserved for hundreds of years in the still air, and now decaying at an astounding rate thanks to the recent intrusions. All this the duo saw and ignored, watching instead for the latest threat to manifest, deep down both knew they had yet to see the worst this facility had to offer.

Suddenly one of the drapes fell and the two intruders sprang for cover. Behind the drape a door suddenly disappeared into the floor. From the new maw a robot emerged. Made to look human but not too human its triangular torso supported a small head and a pair of vicious blade-wielding arms.

"Combat drone" Ami offered, "enchanted against dark energy."

"Fine" Ranma growled, springing in. In one smooth move he burst from the floor, hurling himself in low and fast. The bot brought its swords around in twin glittering arcs, threatening to sever Ranma from himself in a most gruesome manner. Instead it found its arms stopped, caught in the voice like grip of the daemon tainted warrior. He did not however stop there, even as the bot was computing this new pardigram Ranma continued the move, with a twist and a turn he threw the redirected energy of both his leap and the bot's arms into a neat circle. Both blades tore through the bot's chassis with a neat squeal and a shower of sparks. For a brief moment a light of intelligence seemed to shine in the automaton's eyes, only to go out leaving only a ired sigh.

Ranma stood turned and rotated his neck. With a small shrug he turned to Ami, waiting for her readouts to tell him which direction they needed to go. She gestured and they were off.

"You realise that those robots were state of the art" Ami queried, curiosity overriding professionalism, "and that tactical estimates claimed they could take on even the harshest of dark minion with a decent chance of victory?"

"Your tacticians were stupid" he replied curtly. Then he nodded along their path, none to subtlety reminding her of the job at hand. Before them loomed another door, shimmering with an electric arc.

"I can crack it" she ordered almost immediately, "Beyond should be the last command centre."

"And presumably the ones who are turning the centre against us," Ranma added, assessing angles for an expected fight. The door suddenly ceased crackling, its glow faded and with a smooth swish the door opened.

The expected fight appeared in the form of a burst of scintillating light. Ranma, alert as he was deflected the blast with little more than a nonchalant wave of his shadow-armoured arm. He followed the move with a leap and a bound, flexing his long shadow claws as he flew. Ami moved to back him up. Only it wasn't necessary Ranma had already dealt with their opponent.

Lying, quivering, on the floor in front of Ranma, his wings and claws, was a small black cat. Its companion was firmly trapped under a booted heel, mewling pitifully.

"Luna and Artemis" Mercury offered, "our former advisers."

"Former?" Artemis queried.

"You failed us," Ami explained, "when we most needed you you failed us." She might have continued but she was far too busy looking around the room. It was festooned with artefacts from the silver millennium, everything from piled gowns to rocket packs.

"We couldn't-" Artemis gasped around the pain, only to be suddenly cut off by her former protege's upraised hand.

"These are armoured suits" Ami said, pointing at a stack of plates and cloth.

"You mustn't touch them!" Luna insisted.

"They are dusty" Ami added, "they have been here for years, in this very spot!"

"Nobody is allowed to use them!" Luna objected.

"By my readings these could have stopped even a serious daemon blast," Ami said, with growing incredulity. "You knew these were here and you didn't-"

"Possessing them is against the highest laws of Serenity's court!" Luna interrupted. "With them an assassin could approach even the queen herself." Ami refused to dignify the argument, instead looking on the cat with open disgust.

"What we came for?" Ranma asked.

"They'll do for a start" Ami agreed, "I'll see what else is here. You get the med tube cracked open."

"Huh?" asked Ranma, unused to the sudden turn around, and not equipped to decode the mess of machinery as the senshi was. Ami pointed at a bank of oversized inverted test tubes connected to a large machine.

"They are cryo tubes" Ami explained "with a small tweak I can use them for cellular regeneration."

"Neptune and Pluto" Ranma agreed and got to work. For a moment Luna considered renewing their attack, an almost imperceptible glare from the dark warrior froze her in her tracks and almost loosened her bowels.

O

o

Dawn saw the quartet back at the Saotome residence. They had taken over the yard as a sorting place for all the gear they had taken from the hole. Transporting it back had required the temporary jacking of a van but this had since been returned to a site near where it was appropriated.

So far besides the armour suits the had found a myriad of useful items, from hand held scanners to mini-medical gear. Already Pluto and Neptune had appropriated themselves a set of metallic forearm guards that projected a plane of glowing force, instant shield.

"Reduced ration dispenser" Ami concluded, examining a bible sized white box. It seemed to be capable of synthesising the basics for survival from some very unlikely materials. The people consuming them wouldn't put on any weight but they wouldn't die of malnutrition either. She added it to a pile next to her, the 'maybes.'

Ranma was busy at another end of the yard, using Michuru to test the cloaking function of the new suits against his own tainted senses. So far they were proving remarkably robust.

"If your society could make these why the heck were you lumped with the doll suits?" he asked. Michuru just shrugged, still getting used to the power assisting functions, and all the other 'extras' the suit included.

The only missing senshi was sat apart looking intently at her right arm, and the armoured suit clutched in it. Where it had been flesh, skin and bone now it was sheer grey. A matt metalled replacement for that which she had lost. It had been discovered among the medical gear, and shown up in the archives as being a fairly standard replacement for injured soldiers. The prosthetic would allow her to feel almost as well as the meat version ever had., with the proviso that she would be able to filter out the extremes. It would also provide a significantly more forceful right hook. Nevertheless the arm and suit were causing the senshi more than a little consternation.

They had turned against their advisor's, in fact they had incarcerated them, they had abandoned the patterns that their Queen had laid down. They had even turned against the quiet principles of engagement that the senshi had always lived by, never before had they fought on a 'strike first and hang the questions' basis. Add to this their alliance with someone who was blatantly hiding things, and dubious enough with what they could see; and all of a sudden a pattern started to emerge. In all the years of her prolonged existence Pluto had dreamed of a bright future and now she had had cast that dream aside seemingly as readily as she was now casting aside the uniform she had worn for generations.

"How far have we come?" she mused, bitterness in her voice, "Or should that be fallen?" The arm had never been in any of the visions she had seen in the gate. Looking at it now it was an all too solid symbol of the changes that were forcing themselves on her. "when did I stop asking questions?" she mused.

"You don't mean that" Ranma's mother interrupted, suddenly appearing in front of the other lady.

"I don't?" asked Setsuna with a wry smile.

"Not really" Nodoka replied, gathering her dress to sit. "Your real problem isn't the arm, the suit, or even trusting the creature that my son has become."

"Oh?"

"No the real problem is harder than that," Nodoka explained, "I still remember my father going through it before he went to war."  
"Your father, war?" Setsuna replied, adding up the numbers and coming up short.

"Not that war" Nodoka replied, "it was something else, but something no less deadly. My father was a swordsman, like myself but back then my house was a school for kenjitsu. Another school challenged us, it got nasty. Blood was shed, and students died."

"I fail to see-" Setsuna interjected.

"He was a Christian in the true sense of the word, and beilived the words he found in the Book. Nevertheless he picked up his blade and went to war with the others. On the night afterwards I found him in the dojo, in front of the family shrine. It was then that he explained it. What you are feeling is what he felt. He called it a 'dark epiphany' the unquiet realisation of the dark parts of your own being."

"You are afraid not that you have been led down a dark path but that you chose to go," Nodoka concluded. "You are no child that can be led around by pretty stories, you know that and I know that. What you have done you have done because it needed to be done. There is no use blaming any one for-"

"Enough Saotome-san" the senshi interrupted. "I know you mean well but... I know you believe what you say but..." she drifted off once more into quiet introspection. Nodoka waited a while and then stood to leave, briefly clasping the other lady on the shoulder as she went.

"its not that simple" the guardian finished in a lost voice. And it wasn't. Yes she knew she was afraid of the darkness within her, but she had had to come to terms with that darkness a long time ago. This time she knew it was something else, it was a matter of control. Ever since she assumed the post Setsuna had struggled against the turbulent tides of existence to maintain her grip on the threads of fate. The arm was as blatant a symbol as anyone needed that she had dropped the reigns. Everything seemed to be moving so fast, the last battle, the drama of the next two, the changes that were overtaking them; Ami's anger, her crippling and the dramatic way how she had resolved both, Michuru's almost visible hurt and its transformation into anger and dark resolve. And now it had overtaken even her, every time she looked in the mirror for the last thousand years the same person had looked back and now it wouldn't. Her dream was turning into a nightmare and all she could do was hold on.

But was that the right decision. Deep down a part of her still believed that Usagi would have found another way, one that didn't involve the dark pact that her personal guard's remnants had struck. Looking back now Setsuna could see just how vulnerable they had been following the 'deaths' of their friends, and the sudden approach of a 'saviour' was all too convenient. Was there not a chance the cats were right, could they now be working for the very agencies that destroyed them. There was no way to be sure.

Setsuna looked up at her friends and a new thought occurred, 'did it matter.' The thought was unworthy of her but she thought it anyway. There could be no argument that the girls were more active now than when she met them in the hospital. If Ranma hadn't come along there could be little doubt that the place they met could easily have been their grave. So what had they really lost? Setsuna looked again at her arm and wondered still.

O

o

o

The others were just assembling for the evening meal when Ranma got 'that' feeling. It led him to the door, just in time to open it before Urd could knock.

"Uh?" she said intelligently, arm still raised into knocking position. She was dressed to impress, a shimmery outfit that was all cleavage and leg, covered enough to stop barely short of lingerie but only just.

"You have the list?" Ranma asked, following the stunned goddesses eyes to her other hand.

"Thank you" the warrior offered, removing the list, "and good night." Then he shut the door

"That wasn't very polite" Nodoka chided as Ranma returned.

"True" Ranma agreed, "If her information is right I'll apologise later."


	8. divide and rue

**Prices paid 8. Divide and Rue.**

Evening came swiftly to the Saotome residence. As had become their custom the quartet gathered in the dojo for a last meeting before they turned in. This evening the fine meal had conspired with a close night and the confusions of the day to leave the 'meeting' slightly quieter than the average tomb.

Ami was of course thoroughly absorbed in her own digital world, running though the various details she had downloaded in the bastion and the readouts she had got from the gear they had appropriated.

Setsuna was just as absorbed in her own crisis, unable to find answers for the questions her soul asked. No small part of this was due to the guardian feeling physically and emotionally drained after her own heavy shock.

Neptune too was still feeling the side effects of the healing treatment from earlier, and was struggling to keep her eyelids up. Admittedly Neptune's own liking for fine food was also playing a part.

Ranma was absorbed once more in his own darkness. Struggling with the reality of his own darkness. In his hand was a letter written by a goddess containing information that would help him prepare for an assault on hell. He had come a long way from the child who used to practice here with his father. One look at his clawed hand gave a small glimpse of the cost, but to get the real measure you would have to go a lot deeper. The fortress had been designed to stop evil beings from getting their hands on tools the guardians had considered too dangerous for even their own troops. He had used dark power and subverted agents to break that guard.

How could he be sure they weren't right. He knew that he contained a darkness deeper than most of the minions of hell, could feel the hate, and anger, the power demanding to be used. Could he really be sure that some part of him wasn't playing them all. For that matter could he really be sure that he had ever escaped the torture rooms in first place.

And then there were the goddesses. How did they fit into all this. Why were they so eager to help him, even though they could see his darkness, and watch as it consumed him. The letter in his hand read more like a love letter than a list of locations. Clearly Urd had ulterior motives but could they really be as transparent as they appeared.

What of Hild? Of Mara? What did Nifleheim want of him, or were they also getting what they wanted.

Unlike Setsuna he did have an answer, and the answer was rage. Whether or not he was a pawn, whether or not he was being used, whether or not others were achieving their ends through him. It didn't matter, because at the end of the day he was one step closer to making them pay. Behind his eyelids and every time he tried to sleep he could still see them, as if he needed a reminder, and his hate burned as fresh today as it ever had.

"Tomorrow we are going for a trip," he said, breaking the silence with his gravely voice. The girls looked around, startled from their own reverie. "First we'll have to look up one of Balthazzar's projects."

"For?" Neptune prompted.

"We are going to need some serious wherewithal to pull this off and it just so happens that the late Marquis knew a man," Ranma explained with a slight grin that was far from angelic.

The other girls nodded in agreement and understanding then broke up to go to bed. Soon only Ranma remained, still thinking on the morrow, his eyes on the family shrine.

"Ranma" Setsuna called from the doorway she was leaning against, "it seems I am not sure about a lot of things these days, but one thing I am sure of is that I at least owe you a debt. If you ever need to talk…."

Ranma replied with a grateful nod, his face still turned away, but in his face he carried more tender emotion than she had ever heard from him.

"Good night Ranma" she breathed, as she turned and left. It was only then that he looked up

"Thank you Suna-chan" he whispered at the doorway. Then he returned to his meditations, staving off sleep and the terrors it brought for another night.

O

O

O

"We are here to see Mr. Phawst" Setsuna claimed. She was wearing a very snappy blue business skirt-suit and leading a flying phalanx of the others who were similarly attired. The one exception was Ranma who was dressed less like a corporate exec and more like an expensive bodyguard. His suit was unremitting black, jacket, shades and gloves included. The effect on the poor secretary might have been funny if it wasn't quite so extreme, the poor girl took one look at the posse and paled whiter than arctic ice. Setsuna could almost see the girl's gut drop.

"I'll. Get. Right. On. It." she stammered, stabbing at the button for the intercom to the CEO's PA.

"Thank you Beverley" Setsuna said, reading the girl's name off her tag, "You may tell Mr Phawst that Associates of Herr Balthazzar are here to see him."

"Balthazzar?" the girl repeated.

"Indeed," Setsuna replied, "Herr Balthazzar" she repeated, emphasising the title before moving off to stand with the others a few feet from the desk.

"Her heart rate is reaching dangerous levels" Ami chided in a low whisper, her back turned to the desk. Setsuna nodded acknowledgement, and quietly decided to ease up a bit.

Mere minutes later a confused looking exec appeared from the lifts and wandered to the desk. A brief conversation and some sideways glances later he was on his way over.

"Ladies?" he queried, automatically ignoring the hired help, "I have been asked to show you up to the top office" he finished. The girls wheeled to look at him, fixing him with a trio of hard stares. Unbeknownst to even them Ranma also backed up the image with a flex of his dark aura. The man paled in a way none too dissimilar to the secretary.

"Er" he managed "if you will come this way"

They were led to executive lift, mirrored and carpeted with more wealth than the average Nerima resident would see in their entire life. There were no buttons, nothing so crass. The man stepped in first and favoured the visitors with what he hoped was an encouraging smile, briefly flirting with the idea of properly introducing himself. Clients like these he just had to know.

"This will take us to the top floor where you may meet Herr Balthazzar" he offered, only to meet the withering gaze from the eldest of the women. He could feel his self importance contract. That face not-only killed all ideas of introductions but made him formally wish he had found any reason to be out today. It wasn't so much that they didn't need the information, more that they seemed to be having a little trouble working out why a creature such as him dared to even exist in the same world as them.

By the time the party had loaded into the lift and was hurtling skyward he was just about ready to curl up into a ball and die, a feeling that got no better when the lift's acceleration settled into his gut.

At the top the garishly expensive lift halted it's skyrocketing and opened with a demure 'ping'. Beyond the opening doors a small line of senior execs had formed up, all respectfully bowing to the skirt-suit clad posse that emerged predatorily from the elevator. Their bows were low enough that they left little doubt somebody had impressed a certain importance on preceding and yet high enough that they had been clearly not told as much as they desired.

When the German born Ceo emerged from his private office to meet the visitors, for the first time in living memory, and dipped a bow significantly lower they were all left playing catch up. The deliberate shaming of his subordinates was not lost on the quartet.

"My name is Yuki-oni" Setsuna said, coming up from a comparatively tiny bow, "And I am here to speak with Herr Phawst alone." With that she strode past the officials and into the man's office, her 'attendants' following.

By the time the Ceo recovered he found her already very much ensconced in his desk, and behind her flanked her team, still scowling. This was definitely not how things were meant to go. He shut the door with precision, pointedly looking his expectant subordinates in the eyes in an obvious warning to stay clear. When he turned back the others still had not apparently moved, nor did they seem inclined to talk.

"Mr. Balthazzar normally-" he began, in an attempt to steal back some of the conversation's momentum. He was cut off by the black suited thug effortlessly lifting him a full foot off the floor by his throat. That wasn't the worst part though, it wasn't as if people didn't threaten him in his line of work anyway. No what frightened him were the burning pits of darkness that replaced the man's eyes and the skulls he could see reflected there. He also had the vague impression of claws. The fact that the man had come more than ten feet in less than a blink of the eye didn't register on him till much later, he was too busy being scared by the eyes.

"oops" Observed the woman from his seat behind his desk, "You said a bad word."

"What?" he choked out, finally dragging his gaze from the apparition holing him in the air.

"Balthazzar!" the apparent 'bodyguard' growled, in a low, quiet voice that could have crumpled cement. Herr Phawst swallowed hard and was about to continue when the woman in charge interrupted.

"Mr Balthazzar has been….bought out," she said in a way that implied anything but. "The man with his 'hand' around your neck was our chief agent in this," she informed him, "a most persuasive man" she finished. He was suddenly dropped, and fell completely to the floor.

"We are…liquidating some of his assets" she informed him, standing now. "The only question is how liquidated they get."

"What do you want?" he gasped, abandoning face in favour of the golden straw of continued life.

"My associate has some papers here," the woman answered, taking the sheaf from the smallest girl with the odd silver eyes and laying them on the table. "You will sign them and then you will not contest the 're-locations' of capital that follow," she informed him, and her voice left no room for doubt.

Phawst signed in a shaky hand. In his mind Herr Phawst could hear a roaring, crashing noise as the company he had built up literally at the cost of his soul was handed over without so much as an associate of the bar in sight.

"We had a contract…" he hazarded, hoping for some loophole, anything that would avert this fate.

"Your…'asset' will be returned" the woman informed him, surprised that the man had not already noticed its reappearance. "But only because we find it more amusing this way…" He gulped again. "We will be back," she informed him, and then she left. Nobody so much as looked them in the face as they went and soon they were out of the main door and away.

"That was the easiest thirty million dollars I'll ever make" mused Setsuna, only now allowing her rebellious body to start the shaking it had been dying to do all the way through the ghastly meeting. Ranma in an uncharacteristic show of emotion, pulled her in close.

Suddenly wrapped in his arms and blanketed in his aura the final dams broke and she broke down. Even as the confused and scornful fellow passengers looked on the human alter-ego of the senshi of Pluto wept out a tide of emotions onto the young man's shoulder and chest.

"Those poor men" she muttered, "trapped in that…" she broke off, trying to push them and all their evils from her mind.

"Hushhhh" Ranma whispered, stroking her hair gently. He motioned for Michuru to take over who nodded but reluctantly. Her own experience had been only a little less nerve wracking, and knowing that some of the evils that man committed had resulted in such a direct effect on her friends… But she did as she was told, and soon she was holding the sobbing form of her friend and letting her own silent tears fall.

"Everything on its way?" Ranma asked Ami, who only raised a scornful eyebrow in response. As if to ask the question was somehow to doubt her abilities in the area of computing.

"Excellent" Ranma agreed, and in his mind a little part of him gloated. The company would fall, its partners and execs with it. They had seen to that, the evil that was Phawst's masterpiece would be dead in the water by midnight and by dawn the sharks would already be feasting. In the meantime they had a very padded offshore account to play with.

Soon the train arrived at their stop and the posse disembarked onto the platform. What the girls didn't see was who was waiting for them.

"You go on back" Ranma advised, "I have something to clear-up." The girls nodded and went on their way, each cut off from the world in their own ways. Ranma appeared to follow but soon doubled back.

"You must be out of favour" Ranma growled from behind the demoness. Mara was once more wearing a tight fitting leather 'biker-chick' ensemble, with "Hell's Ass-Kicker" on the back of its jacket. A back that was currently turned towards someone who had promised to kill her the next time he saw her. Turning around seemed like both a really good idea and a really fatal one. Fortunately for her sense won out, she didn't turn.

"Er" she began lamely, sweating more than she was used to, "a few moments of your time?" she asked as hopefully as she could. All the while she could just feel those shredding claws about to go through her spine.

"What could be so important as to lose a ranked demon for?" Ranma mused and this time she heard the claws as they scraped across the concrete wall.

"Hild-dono wants to talk" Mara Blurted, rationale rapidly abandoning her, "to you I mean…" The answering laugh was neither nice nor friendly.

"What makes you think I care" came his rasp, all to close, she could swear that she could feel his breath on her sweating-bullets neck.

"Its about the princess" Mara blurted, eyes tightly shut and waiting for the pain.

"Go on" the voice rasped, a little louder but no more friendly.

"Hild-dono wants to give you safe passage" Mara blurted, forgetting that she wasn't meant to say that where they might be overheard, "so you can kill the-"

"And what" Ranma interrupted, "makes you think I won't just push through anyway?"  
"Because you know what they are doing to her and hate them for it?" she hazarded. Mara could only guess what sort of things they did to captured moon-princesses but one thing she did know is that she preferred it that way.

"More than I hate the rest of you?" he rasped, dangerously.

"Er, yes?" she guessed, hopefully. There was a long silence.

"Midnight in the cemetery" his voice came and Mara finally relaxed. It was only then that she realised that he might just as well carve the message into her body as let her go. She tensed up so hard she almost fell down, and she stayed that way for five more eternal minutes. Finally she looked round, no Marquis-murdering psycho, the best news she had had all day.

"I gotta get a less sticky outfit" she mused, before heading back into the small newsagents and from there direct to Nifleheim.


	9. Demons due

**Chapter 9: Knight fall.**

When Ranma caught up with the girls they were already ensconcing themselves into the living room. Cups of tea had appeared as if by magic and pillows were being Placed into laps.

"Girls" he said, approaching from the doorway, "first of all I would like to apologise. I had not forseen the effects that the souls-sight might have had on you. It was-"

"Ranma," Setsuna cut in, looking up from her clasped cup, "its okay. If there had been a demon hiding there in mortal form then the extra warning would have been useful." The other girls nodded their agreement.

"A tactical advantage" added Ami.

"Then what was the…" Ranma began but trailed off.

"The train?" Setsuna guessed, leaning into Michuru for support. Ranma nodded.

"The men in tat building they were more than just bad they were empty," Setsuna explained.

"I warned you that they might be," Ranma agreed, still puzzled.

"But that wasn't the problem was it" cued Michuru.

"No the problem was that we're just like them," Setsuna said in a quiet voice.

"No we are Not!" Exclaimed the infuriated girl beside her, "They are filth who have peddled in hate and despair. They sold their souls willingly to the demons for greed and power. We are nothing like-" She was stopped by Ami's gentle touch, but only just. In her eyes righteous indignation still flared.

"Hear her out," advised Ami, already suspecting the truth.

"Not like that" Setsuna agreed, weariness making her careless with her words, "but perhaps more than we know."

"Go on" prompted Michuru still tense as a coiled spring.

"They were empty," Setsuna explained, "all they had left was the greed and envy. It drove them and consumed them." Michuru nodded, willing to let Setsuna explain. "At some point they put aside all else that had ever been in their hearts and embraced the dark parts of their soul."  
"You fear we do the same" cut in Ranma, now seated to one side. Setsuna nodded and continued.

"We used to fight for high ideals. For principles and romantic notions."

"And now we fight to win, to hurt those who hurt us" concluded Ami, causing the other girls to nod.

"Before the training, we were more than soldiers" Setsuna offered, "and more than-"

"We are now?" queried Michuru, anger in her voice. "I don't agree," she stated, eyes flashing, "We were naive, blundering around in the day unaware of the approach of night. Yes we are harder now, and perhaps darker, but we are who we have to be. Our childish belief in foolish notions cost us dear. Or have you forgotten that our friends lie cold in County? And now you accuse us of betraying their memory?" she finished with a tone between demanding and scathing.

"I have not forgotten anyone" Setsuna replied, her voice icy.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Michuru demanded, suddenly standing. "And how do you get off accusing Ranma of this, after all he has done for us! When we were lost he was the one who found us! Where were you?"

"Girls!" Ranma broke in, "Steady!" Setsuna, ducked her head, ashamed and after a brief moment so did Michuru. "Nobody was accusing anyone of anything."

"Hai" Michuru agreed, slumping visibly "Gomen" she offered to her oldest friend, "I'm on edge, I guess I'm just not really dealing with this as well as I thought, eh"

"Me too" Setsuna agreed reaching out to hold her friend again. When Setsuna looked up again it was to see Ami watching with teary eyes and a lost look she hadn't seen since the hospital. They pulled her into the embrace, and for a moment all was well.

O

O

Ranma slipped out over the back wall. He was angry. Not because of what the girls had said. Not even because they had instinctively excluded him. No he was angry because he had been hurt by the words and turned backs. He was angry with himself. He needed these girls to be hard, needed their unquestioned support and obedience. Hell was going to be worse than they could possibly imagine and any hesitation could surely kill them all. If their old styles re-surfaced on the mission then there was no way they would see clear skies again.

But now he had weakened, showed them some compassion. Understanding would follow, and then doubt. With doubt came hesitation and that led to failure; an unstoppable path to tragedy.

Then Ranma stopped, perched halfway into a leap from the roof of a restaurant, suddenly struck by a thought. He was wrong. He knew it. All this time he had been using the girls. They had been pawns in his quest for revenge. He had never really believed that their dear princess would be saveable, nor that they would even live to tell the tale.

As the heaven's opened above, and rain began to come down, Ranma's fists crushed the rail he held onto. All this time he had been lying, to himself, to the girls to them all. He jumped down onto the roof and paced over to the elevator top, mind spinning.

When had he made these decisions. Just when had he abandoned real hope. He sat, cross-legged on the wet roof, heedless of the rain. Mercilessly he tore through his own memories, searching for the truth. The pain was intense but that was hardly new.

There it was, a scar, an anomaly in his mind itself. Something he had blanked off for reasons unknown. But the question was, dare he open his mental equivalent of Pandora's box? Could he afford not to?

With a wrench he tore the bonds aside. Only much later did he ever consider that a slow peel might have been more conducive to his health. The sudden insight was blinding, intense and more than a little painful.

Suddenly Ranma found himself facing off against a dark double of himself. He only had brief heartbeats before the clawed parody charged in, murder shining in his eyes. The fight was outright vicious, and conducted at a furious speed. Claw, fist, foot, elbow and knee flashed around in a deadly dance of focussed aggression. It went on and on, with no sign of either tiring or stopping. Each seemed perfectly matched. Heartbeat by heartbeat the intensity continued to rise, fury and focus warring for supremacy.

Each drew on the dark energies that sustained them, pushing their limits way beyond that of ordinary mortals. And Ranma knew he was lost. The difference was miniscule but it was there none the less, the doppleganger was better at drawing the power.

Suddenly a block failed, a dodge got mistimed, and a claw hammered through. Ranma found himself spitted upon the claws of the dark version of himself.

"You are weak!" it rasped, twisting the claw. "You doubt!" Ranma responded only with a wordless grunt of pain.. "We will hurt them!"

"Who?" Ranma gasped, "who are you trying to hurt?"

"Eeeveryone" the apparition hissed hatefully. Ranma heard the words and knew who this was.

"You're who they wanted me to-"

"Yeeees" is hissed, "I am who you could be. Who you will be."

"No" Ranma gasped, strength failing.

"Yeeees" it hissed, as everything went dark.

O

O

O

"Bastard!" Ranma rasped jerking upright. He found himself still on the roof, but not alone, beside him knelt the soaked and concerned form of Urd Goddess of the past. She was wearing a white shirt and jeans. Oh and around her neck were locked both of Ranma's powerful hands.

"oops" he said, letting her go. She fell to her hands and knees, coughing, and he slumped back brain swirling. "I'm a complete bastard!" he swore quietly.

"Won't get any arguments from me!" Urd agreed through her sore throat, "I mean I come out here and worry about- Urk" she was cut off by a sudden hug. To say she was confused would have been one heck of an understatement.

"You saved me," he whispered into her ear in a breath that sent tingles all the way down her spine. Suddenly she was aware of just how close to naked she was in this all but transparent shirt, just how close his face was to hers, and just how damn fine that well toned body of his felt. She resisted the urge to devour him, but only just.

Ranma let her go, holding her instead at arm's length. For a moment he wondered at the strange expression on her face then dismissed it.

"What time is it?" he asked, in a hurry.

"Uh, just before midnight" Urd replied, confused by the sudden turnaround. She was even more confused when Ranma leapt up suddenly alarmed.

"Shit late!" he swore turning to run off, then stopping and turning back to her. "You see now I know I don't have to be," he said as if it explained something.

"Uh?" queried Urd.

"I had a plan" Ranma explained, "I was going to get my revenge."

"On who?" she asked caught up in the light that shined from him.

"Everyone, everything" Ranma answered, "I was going to be the demon Baltha-bastard wanted me to be, with nobs on. I didn't know it but I was and now I'm not."

"Huh?" she offered, more lost than ever.

"There is another way" he told her serious and happy at the same time. "I'll do both, and just maybe I can walk….No that's silly I won't but they will."

"Whoa!" she demanded, slapping a hand over his mouth. "Shut up for two seconds and then start at the beginning!"

"I was right, Setsuna was right" he said, very slowly, but no less intelligibly. "I am a bastard!"

"Uh-huh" she nodded, still feeling the throb in her neck.

"But so were you" he went on in the same lecturing tone.  
"Uh?" she asked

"Hild's daughter?" he explained. She nodded a reply, starting to get the thread.

"So you thought that because you had hell-powers you were doomed to be a demon but now you know-"

"That all the plans I made on that assumption don't actually have to happen," Ranma agreed.

"And instead you can turn to the side of heaven," Urd prompted. Ranma just tilted his head back and barked a laugh.

"Hah! Fat chance" he said, "It's too late for that, and besides, I may not be as much of a bastard as I was going to be but I am still going to make them pay. And in the very worst way!"

"Ranma" Urd tried to interject.

"No" he cut her off, "They pay, all of them," his voice was pregnant with rage and violence, "and they don't ever stop paying. Ever!"

"Ranma no!" she wept, but it was too late he had turned and was already bounding away through the lessening rain. "Ranma" she whispered, "its not too…" but even she couldn't finish the words.

O

O

Ranma landed in the graveyard with an almost soundless cat-like crouch, his coat coming to rest around him a heartbeat later. His eyes shined dark in the cloudy night.

"I thought you weren't going to come!" grumped a very wet Mara.

"You were wrong" Ranma said in a tone that made the rack sound like a holiday camp. He flicked the rain from his hair, at the same time straightening and turning slowly towards the demoness. For a moment she caught his eyes and in that moment she was sure tat he was here to kill her. The colour drained from her face and her hands were already up in warding gestures by the time she noticed the expression was gone.

"Well?" he cued her.

"Well what?" she asked, swallowing the lump in her throat.

"Hild?" He prompted. Sher nodded and turned away, pretending to be gathering her energies when in fact all she was doing was gathering herself.

"Shit" she muttered, "that kid's an asshole."

O

O

"Shit That kid's an asshole!" Urd swore as she stepped into the shrine, wringing her hair out onto the floor.

"Urd!" Bell complained pointedly.

"Shi- I mean oops!" she conceded, and then smirked sheepishly at the floor.

"It doesn't matter" Bell said resignedly. "how was your night?"

"Really dull up until the end" Urd answered, flopping down into the couch.

"Oh?" Bell prompted, already mopping the floorboards.

"Yea, Carlo was a complete washout," Urd explained, turning around on the couch to face her sister, "no spine to him at all, one little gargle-blaster and he was flat."

"Urd, you know you aren't meant to give those to mortals," Bell chided.

"Yea but, well, you know," Urd mumbled, turning back, "But he wasn't the big news" she added, leadingly.

"No?" bell asked, squeezing the mop in the bucket.

"No that was Ranma" Urd answered, offhandedly.

"Ranma" bell echoed suddenly stock-still and white as a sheet.

"Yeah" agreed Urd, finger-coming her hair "Saotome Ranma, you remember him?"

"uh-huh" Bell replied, now seemingly unsteady on her feet she came and sat on the side of the couch. "Didn't Kami-sama say he was going to do…"

"hai" whispered Bell in a tiny voice.

"Weren't you…" Urd continued, but only the sound of her sister's door slamming answered the question. "Oh no…." she whispered

o

o

o

As the hell gate closed behind them Ranma found himself in Nifleheim for the very first time. Nifleheim was to Hell what the earth was to ancient theorists on the nature of the universe, a central core that defined all existence about it but, because of its unique nature, not actually a part of it.

"Welcome to our home" Mara offered in her best Dracula voice. An effect that was totally lost on Ranma who was desperately trying to reign in his temper. Around him he could see literally swarms of the vile creatures he had sworn to destroy and yet it was not the time, yet.

In front of them the crooked, brazen and bone-built towers of the Demon capital rose, in defiance of every law of gravity. Among its lofty, accursed spires figures flew, demons on the wing. The streets were paved with the bones and hardened flesh of the unworthy. The walls built out of their screaming faces. Here the souls of evil men came for their punishment, and here they rested in torment. The air was flavoured by their pain and rent by their continual screams. Everywhere he looked he could see pain and misery but at least here he knew it was not random, these souls were not random pickings but victims of their own evils, sentenced to spend a time here in penance for their worldly sins.

Still his fists clenched and a growl built deep within his chest.

"Whoa! Down boy!" Mara blurted, her fear returning, "think of the dolphins…er...say Goosphabah…oosa?" she tried, becoming more and more desperate.

"Mara" Ranma growled, "Hild!" he commanded, She swallowed and led him into the city, once again walking with that itchy feeling right between her shoulder blades.

They walked through the city, their path cleared by gawping demonlings. Even the lowliest of them could feel the roiling power that came off the male of the group, and the palpable fear that the female was projecting. Needless to say those demons who knew Mara by sight were even more awed.

"Here we are," Mara announced. They had stopped in front of the largest building of the city, a skyscraper that reached up into the roiling red skies above. Its face was as red as the clotted blood that lined the street, its crown all in deepest black and horned. Its very presence seemed to ooze malevolence, and imposing power.

Ranma's lip curled and he pushed through the doors, aching for a release, which is when he saw Giltaberntz, Balthazzar's favourite little imp. Mara heard his knuckles crack and just had time to wince before the violence started.


	10. Depths

Chapter 10: the darkest depths.

The senshi woke up slowly and reluctantly. What had started with a hug had turned into a talk, and that had turned into a girl's night, and then someone had found some booze and now they were paying the price.

"Just tea please Saotome-san" Setsuna asked, trying not to let the glare of the sunlight make her squint too much.

"Hai" agreed Michuru. Nodoka nodded.

"Do you know if Ranma will be back for breakfast?" the matriarch queried, to be met with confused faces.

"He went out?" Michuru asked.

" Soon after the 'discussion'" Ami supplied.

"And he hasn't been back?" Setsuna asked. Nodoka shook her head. "oh," the other girl echoed.

"But we were supposed to be going to…" Michuru observed.

"And we still are" Setsuna said, "he hinted yesterday on the way home that he had some business last night, but I didn't think much of it."

"And if he's in trouble?" Ami asked.

"We don't have nearly enough information to help" Setsuna replied, "on the other hand we are working to a tight schedule."

"The boat" Michuru observed agreeing.  
"The boat" Setsuna confirmed.

"We are booked on the oh-nine-hundred" Ami reminded them. "That gives us an hour and a half to reach Narita."

"Whoa" Michuru observed, "I'm not packed." Setsuna had only a brief moment to observe how very unlike the old Michuru that was before realising that she too hadn't finished.

"Then I suggest you get on with it," she chided, "I'll be in my room checking the maps." She wasn't sure either friend would believe her but she sure as hell wasn't admitting she was unprepared.

"I'll make you a lunch up" Nodoka observed.

"With your permission I will phone my mother" Ami asked, waiting for Nodoka's nod before heading for the stairs.

O

O

In the lobby of the new look Pandemonium fortress there was, well pandemonium. Ranma had hurled himself at the imp, whop had desperately attempted to dodge. The guards stationed in the lobby had attempted to prevent the attack on principle, only to find themselves brushed aside. Unfortunately the delay had given the imp more time to dodge and he had made use of it by upsetting a mail trolley. There was now a veritable cloud of papers falling like oversized snowflakes, and in the middle of it all Ranma was playing a lion and mouse game. Meanwhile Mara slowly slumped down the wall.

"Somehow I just know that I am getting the blame for this" she muttered.

Finally Ranma caught the imp, speared it through its oversized gut, pinioning it to the floor.

"Pleeease" it begged.

"No" Ranma replied, tearing it in half. Guts flew, and the demonling died with a squelch. From behind him he heard the guards gathering themselves for another rush. He smiled and waited, they might yet prove entertaining.

"Stop!" commanded a voice dripping female authority. Ranma turned around in time to see the newcomer sweep her hand through the room. The floating files immediately slapped into the wall, and slid down into neat piles. In turn this revealed the 'woman' responsible.

"Whoa" Ranma muttered, suddenly realising where Urd got some of her looks from. Hild was stood there in a white-edged, purple dress, cut down the front all the way to her navel and hugging her figure in a way that left little doubt as to exactly how fine it was. Around her shoulders floated a myriad of ribbons of the same hue. On her face a bright red star shined setting her golden eyes into stark relief. Around her neck and in her hair she wore some startling golden jewellery but it never even came close to the mystique of the woman herself.

Hild looked straight at Ranma, a gleam in her eyes as if she had heard the thought and it amused her. "If you are finished playing?" she asked with a smile on her exquisitely sculpted lips. Before Ranma even thought of responding she was already sweeping away towards the elevator.

"Ranma shook himself as if waking from some dream. "Damn she's good" he whispered. "Gotta remember beautiful sure, but evil as stink! Okay very beautifu,." he conceded. He followed her towards the lift, not sparing the trashed lobby or the stain at its centre another glance.

In the elevator he founds no trace of the demon queen who had entered it just before him. But it did convey him swiftly to the top office; and opened to reveal Hild's personal secretary, a very cute little succubus in a pin stripe skirt suit, and a large double door.

"Saotome san you are expected" the demon-girl offered, standing and opening the doors for him. The office beyond was spacious, and Spartan. Done in reds and blacks it was dominated by a massive desk in darkest hardwood, and behind that the throne of the queen of hell. A throne that was currently unoccupied.

"Drink?" came the query, Ranma turned fast to find the Mistress of the realm pouring herself a scotch.

"No thank you" replied Ranma before he remembered that he wasn't here to be polite.

"It's the better part of two centuries old?" she prodded. He frowned and she got the message.

"I'm not here-" he began angrily.

"Uh!" she cut in, halting him, "lets not turn this nasty just yet," she chided.

"I-"

"Am a very remarkable person who I would like to know more about" Hild asked, seating herself on the corner of her desk and looking over the rim of her glass at him as she sipped. For a few heartbeats those fantastic eyes held him captivated.

"Please" she offered, waving her spare hand towards a seat.

"No" replied Ranma sternly, fighting her power.

"Fine" she replied. "Then lets talk business."

"Yes lets" he replied, lip curling, as he forced himself to remember his hate.

"You want revenge on the creatures that wronged you," the queen suppled, "You wish to return to the fortress where they held you and crush them utterly?"

"It is more than that" Ranma replied, now knowing that it was. The reply seemed to genuinely shock the demoness before him.  
"You mean that," she stated, incredulity seeping into her voice.

"Yes" Ranma asserted.

"So Balthazzar really did fail" Hild added, standing and moving around her desk.

"In every way!" Ranma replied forcefully.

"So t would seem" Hild replied, seating herself. "But yet you still wish to have your revenge."

"Among other things" Ranma agreed.

"And for that you are willing to accept my help?" she queried.  
"Mara said safe passage?" Ranma asked warily.

"Indeed she did," Hild agreed, hiding her disappointment in the agent. "And have it you shall, under certain conditions." Ranma growled, sensing double play.  
"No my young hero," Hild cut in before his anger could manifest in a statement, "Nothing like that," she added. "All I want from you is an assurance."

"What assurance?" he asked his voice still full of violence.

"That you will do a thorough job" she replied, looking at him over her glass again, but this time with a fire in her eyes.

"Why?" he asked before he could stop himself.  
"Do you know what Balthy-baby planned for you?" she asked.  
"Yes," Ranma replied, "he wanted me to be like him, a demon." Hild considered this for a moment. Then replied thoughtfully.

"you underestimate yourself" she said, "and him." She paused, seeing that she had his attention.

"Did you read the file I sent?" she asked. Ranma snorted.

"A file sent by the queen of hell? I ain't that stupid."

"You thought I had sent a trap?" she queried. When he didn't answer she saw the truth, "Indeed I considered doing so but the truth seemed far more likely to get a result." Again she paused, sipping at her scotch.

"Explain" Ranma prompted.

"Not to go too deep into it but you were never supposed to be born" Hild supplied, "too dangerous you see."

"Go on"

"It's not a matter of fate so much as character. The Yggradsil computer can tell certain things even before a mortal is born. Your birth was flagged in bright shining red."

"Why?" Ranma asked, curiosity now replacing anger.

"Because you had the unique conjunction of natural ability and superhuman drive that meant you could, if you so choose transcend the mortal frame you were to be born into. Or even worse, should you fall to evil, you might usher in a new dark age, another Ragnarok."

"So instead?"

"You were to be…'removed' from the equation," Hild explained lingering over the distasteful words.

"By you?"

"Ha" she laughed, "no child, by heaven! It is they who limit mortality. From this office we drive them on."

"Provided it serves your ends," Ranma pointed out less kindly.

"Of course" Hild replied shamlessly. She leaned back, stretching a little, "but then we never claimed to be the good guys."

"Then why-"

"Did you happen at all?" Hild guessed. At Ranma's nod she continued, "Someone thought that they could limit you, protect you; thought that they knew better than the computer. Needless to say they were wrong, and it was only a matter of time before some dark power claimed you."

"But that was your doing!" Ranma growled rage returning.

"Not mine," Hild snorted, "I can assure you of that. I have far more sense than to play with fire like you had the power to become. No that was Balthazzar, but if it hadn't been him it would have been something else, an unhappy love affair, one manipulation too many, the loss of a loved one. All of these things could have started you on the path. But Balthazzar couldn't wait-"

"So he cut a deal," Ranma growled.

"Indeed" Hild replied, once more sipping her drink for effect. "Unfortunately for him he underestimated you. He wanted to turn you into the ultimate weapon, a force to overturn Heaven and Hell. What he did instead was create his very own bane."

"He nearly got me," Ranma admitted.

"But he didn't" Hild disagreed, "which is perhaps the scariest part."

"Scariest?" Ranma asked.  
"Definitely" Hild confirmed, standing to go and refill her drink. "You see it isn't about fate, or pre-destination. Essentially what you have done, any mortal could do."

"But they don't" Ranma noted.

"Indeed, they don't" she agreed. "For whatever reason they find themselves unable to break free of their mortal limitations, their own self imposed ceilings." She refilled her glass and added another this time not asking. Then while he was sill thinking these revelations over she returned to perching on the desk corner, holding out the second glass for him. He took it and sat in the seat she offered. It was only after he had taken his first sip that he realised what he had done. He looked up to see the stunning Goddess of the underworld smiling at him. He could do little but smile back.

"So now you will go back and destroy Balthy-baby's last legacy." Ranma raised an eyebrow.

"The moon girl," she explained, "she was to be a backup in case you failed, or indeed in case you grew too wild and ad to be destroyed."

"Ha" Ranma snorted.

"Indeed" Hild agreed with a smirk, "he left that a little late didn't he."

O

O

O

Meanwhile, more than a world away, the Senshi were landing at a tiny airfield in the Mediterranean. The sun shined bright and all around them glittered the beautiful azure seas of one of the world's youngest seas.

A small weather-beaten man approached them and said something in the greek patois of the region. None of the girls caught a word of it.

"Papadopolis-san?" Setsuna asked.  
"Oc" he replied before continuing into another stream of unintelligible syllables.

"Where is the boat?" Setsuna tried in English.

"Boat?" the old man replied, finally understanding. "I take you boat."

"Thank-you" Setsuna supplied, before motioning the others to follow. The man led them down to a small jetty beside which rode a small wooden fishing boat.  
"That's it?" Michuru asked dubiously.

"It is better on the inside" Ami asserted, hoping her information was correct. She had been unable to get the pictures she wanted, something to do with the skipper being involved in dealings that were…'questionable' as far as international espionage laws went. Fortunately for all concerned she turned out to be right, and the interior belied the simple look of the outside. The control room was festooned with complicated computer arrays and numerous screens, the hold replaced with a submersible diving vessel.

"This will do nicely," Setsuna said happily, clapping her friend on the back. "Now lets get the show on the road."

O

O

"Bell" Urd asked, peering around her sister's door. It had taken her quite some time to build up the nerve to step in. this was Bell's room, entering it without permission…

"I'm coming in," Urd continued, she had tried everything else. From dropping things on the floor that would make a mess, to fighting with Skuld, nothing had worked. Now the last reserves had been gathered and she was forced to break in..

"G'way" bell said. She was lying on her bed, with her face in her hands, still choking down the sobs she had tried to muffle with her pillow.

"Sorry sis" Urd said, creeping forward, "No can do. I'm your big sister and I have to bug you, its in the rules."

"G'way" bell commanded a little louder. This time Urd flinched. But she steeled herself and sat on the bed.

"You don't have to tell us anything" Urd said reaching out a hand to put onto her sister's back, "just don't cut us out okay. We are your sisters and we care no matter what."

"No" Bell said "you don't know" she sobbed, "they sealed the file."

"Bell?" Urd asked, "Has this got something to do with Ranma?" At the name the dams broke and suddenly Urd had an armful of sobbing sister.

"I did terrible things" she sobbed, "Terrible things." Urd had problems hearing her sister, but even more problems believing her.

"Bell?" she asked.  
"Ranma" her sister responded, "I was meant to stop him being born. I didn't, Nodoka was too lonely. But then things got worse. I Had to stop him you see, I had to."

"No" Urd said, finally getting the gist of the direction this was going.

"All of it" Bell agreed, "meant to hold him back. Stop him. Make him settle."

"No. Bell tell me it isn't true," Urd said with real compassion. "Not you!" Bell just burst out crying, her nods stuttered by wracking sobs.

"Why you?" Urd asked after a long pause.

"I had to. No choice. Kami-sama said I needed to see" Bell said.

"Bastard" Urd said. "I'm going to kick his teeth..-"

"No!" Bell cut in "He was right."

"Nobody is allowed to make my sister cry!" Urd asserted.

o

o

"I am sorry but I really do have to deal with this" Hild said. She had just put down the intercom phone which had so rudely broken into the conversation. It was only then that Ranma realised what had been happening. He had been enjoying himself, really enjoying himself. Somehow the confrontation had turned into a conversation. A good one.

"No worries Hild-dono" Ranma replied, automatically adding the honorific. He winced as soon as he realised he had, but by then it was too late.

"Ranma" she called, stopping his recriminations. He turned towards her, she was still sat on the edge of her desk, looking no less alluring than when he had first seen her.

"I don't expect your fealty" she asserted, "all I am asking for is a fair judgement. Of who I am, of what I do."

"Hild" Ranma began, only to be interrupted again.

"Please" she said, "save it for next time."

"Next time" he asked.

"I had fun today" she told him, "and I would very much like to do this again some time soon."

"I'd like that" Ranma replied, and he meant it. From there it was back to the lobby, past the snarling guards and their bandages, and back to the gate. Mara quickly fell into step beside him as he stepped out of the fortress, she had been outside smoking when he returned.

"So?" she asked.  
"We met, we talked, we drank a little," Ranma supplied

"You drank?" Mara asked, "Not the scotch surely?"

"The scotch" Ranma asserted.

"Whoa" Mara replied. "And…" she prompted.

"And now I'm going home" Ranma supplied. Mara stooped in her tracks, growling.

"You!" she growled

"Gate!" Ranma ordered, and Mara obeyed suddenly reminded of just how dangerous this man before her was.

Seconds later the two of them stepped back out into the air of the Tokyo suburbs. Ranma turned back to the demoness, conscience warring. With a grimace and a snarl on his face he said "thank you."

As he walked off Mara was left there with her jaw on the floor.


	11. The evil that men do

**Prices Paid 11: The Evil that men do.**

"Mom?" Ranma called as he arrived home. It was night-time still and yet there were no lights on. As he arrived at the door he found it ajar, he lock clearly broken. He cautiously stepped inside, trepidation rising. When he called out he didn't do it so much to call Nodoka as to prompt any lurkers to move.

He felt them shift. Three other people, all mortal but with diminished souls. They were hiding in the darkened recesses of the ground floor, and clearly well accustomed to night work. A new scent reached Ranma's brain, more than one of them had left a blood scented trail behind them. The other end of the trail led to Ranma's mother, a quick sensory check revealed that she was not going to answer, not ever again. Her soul had already left the mortal world. Anger roiled.

"You are all going to pay for what you have done" he called in a quiet yet resounding, gravely voice, "You are going to talk, you will beg, and when I am finished with you then you will be allowed to die"

That was enough for one thug, he leapt out of hiding, levelling his heavy revolver on the silhouetted form making the threats. He never got the chance to pull the trigger, a searing pain exploded across his gut, a pain that tore right through his body, eclipsing his world with its intensity. He screamed, and kept screaming.

"We're sorry about the broad," another cried, checking his own gun. "She pulled a blade on us, didn't leave us no choice. We're just here to talk." There was a slight quaver in his voice, he was a lot less confident than he sounded. Suddenly the man's protests were cut off, two clawed hands pushed through the wall behind him and dragged him back through with them.

Covered in fragments of the wall the man sailed through the darkened living room, to impact into another wall. The wall folded around him, lasting just long enough to shatter the man's spine and most of his ribs. He went into shock in an instant, his body shutting down in an ill-conceived plan to limit the damage. Then, through the sudden darkness a lance of pain appeared. Ranma brutally swept aside the clouds surrounding the man's mind.

"Not yet filth" he whispered, "You've got a lot of pain to feel before you die."

"Die!" commanded the voice of the third thug, screaming at the top of his lungs as he lunged out of hiding, pistol levelled. The weapon barked, small crashes of thunder in rapid series. In Ranma's hand the second thug twitched, his body forced into spasms by each impact. The demon-touched revenant dropped the now limp thug to the floor.

"I had plans for him" he growled, glaring at the last thug past heavy brows. The man in question, besides having bladder problems, was desperately fumbling with his pistol, trying to reload.

Ranma stretched onto his toes then took two rapid steps, clearing the room in an instant, stepping clear over the screaming form at its centre. The final thug found his vision filled with angry son. A lazy left smacked the pistol from the man's now broken hand. A powerful right palm lifted him clear off the floor, stretching his spine to snapping point. And a hideous lashing kick drove him out into the yard, through the shoji door.

"Please, please, please," the man babbled, crawling across the grass, an endless litany of entreaties that came through the haze of his terrified tears.

"No!" Ranma replied, stamping his foot through the man's skull.

Finally Ranma turned back to the first man where he was still lying, screaming on the floor. With a hard toe he turned the man onto his back. The man sprawled out as if crucified to the floor, breathing laboriously. Then Ranma placed his foot on the man's ruined gut and pushed just a little.

"Now we are going to talk" he informed the thug, and he was believed.

o

o

o

The three Senshi made no attempt to hide their smiles as the plane touched down in Narita. They were once more dressed in civvies and shades. But the recent excursion to sunnier climes was not what made them smile. For the first time in what seemed a lifetime they had succeeded, alone. They had gone after the artefact without the help of their new allies and retrieved it by their own efforts. With their newfound edge and superior teamwork they had beaten the shrine's youma guardians and recovered the Trident of Neptune.

Walking towards the bullet train that would take them back to the city proper the three girls were walking arm in arm, triumph radiating form their every action. Even Ami, so withdrawn of late was a part of it.

Suddenly she stopped, her silver eyes staring at a distant point.

"Oh my" she exclaimed, stopping the others.

"What is it Ami?" Michuru asked, still clutching the heavily wrapped bundle in her arms.

"It seems there have been developments" she replied, as her eyes began scanning from side to side.

"Explain?" Setsuna prompted.

"In a bungled housed invasion Saotome Nodoka was killed" Ami supplied in a voice that was not her own, "the scene showed significant signs of a struggle and police are working on DNA samples found at the site."

"When?" Setsuna prompted again.

"Two days ago" Ami replied, "I was running a routine scan when-"

"What about Ranma?" Michuru broke in, anxious for her mentor.

"Nothing yet" Ami replied, her eyes still flicking from corner to corner. The other girls waited with baited breath. "I have something" the smallest Senshi added. "Mr Phawst, a prominent business man, was found today dismembered in his private estate. At the same time police discovered evidence of many illegal activities that the man appeared to be fronting through his web of business contacts. Indictments are predicted to follow.

"Ranma" Setsuna observed. Michuru nodded, just as certain.

"Nothing more direct than that" Ami offered.

"We should go to the house," Setsuna offered.

"Agreed" Ami and Michuru chorused.

O

O

O

The house looked gloomy and beaten. Even from the road it had a palpable aura of sorrow around it. If a house could indeed have a Wa then this one's was broken and beat. Even the sunlight of the day didn't seem to reach the inside of its curtain wall. A stream of yellow tape surrounded the edifice and a lazy looking policeman was stood by the entrance.

"Whoa" murmured Michuru.

"He's here," Setsuna muttered.

"I'm not detecting him" Ami said, her cyber-self scanning the area. No lights were on, and there appeared to be a complete lack of signals from within.

"He's here," Setsuna asserted, now looking for sign of their mentor. She could feel his own brand of darkness nearby, feel it all the way down her spine. Steeling herself she crossed the line and headed for the door. The other girls looked at each other for a moment then fell in behind. The policeman saw the three approaching and pulled his earphones out of his ears before heading on an intercept course.

"Ladies," he began in his best authoritative tone, "You can't be-" he was cut off by Setsuna's sudden hand. She raised it palm towards him within inches of his face, and kept walking. The other girls smirked and followed on. Behind them the young man was gasping like a fish out of water.

"You can't go in there" he called from behind, much less certainly. At the same time he reached for his radio. Setsuna heard the crackle and stopped. She turned slightly towards Ami.

"If you would?" she asked , Ami nodded her reply and jammed his communication. Meanwhile Setsuna opened the doors to the oddly dark interior. As the three of them stepped into the mourning home the policeman fell in behind.

Around the ground floor could be seen the detritus o the fight, scraps of ruined shoji, plaster and dark smears of bloodstains. Presiding over it all was Ranma. He was knelt, face towards the floor, poised in the middle of the clear space, shadows embracing him all around. The one exception, the one source of illumination, was a flickering red glow, sourced apparently underneath him.

"Ranma?" Setsuna asked, her voice loud in the unearthly stillness. Slowly he raised his face, revealing the source of the glow. His eyes were bright slits of fire. His whole face had taken on the draconian aspect they had only ever seen hints of before. Now they were confronted by it in all its hate. Staring back at the senshi and their unintentional tail was the very picture of man's earliest fears, a dragon incarnate still thirsting for life. Michuru gasped, Ami beeped and the policeman filled his shorts. Setsuna just stared. Matching the gaze with her own, seeking the core of him behind the gaze.

"Ranma" she called, coaxing. He blinked and rose, shadows forming dark claws and wings around him. His fanged mouth opened and the same unearthly fire could be seen burning within. He took one step forward.

Everything changed. The policeman ran, and didn't stop; Ami gasped at her unbelievable readings; Michuru readied her new trident and Setsuna pushed its point to the floor. "Ranma" she called again as the darkness approached.

There he was, destruction cloaked around flesh, pouring out an ancient hatred and yet somehow she knew. She knew they were safe, this was still Ranma, their mentor, their teacher, the man who had fought through hell and self only to take the time to save them along the way.

He took another step forward and she could feel the heat rolling off of him, feel the fire of the energies that burned inside of him.

In the Background Ami was muttering something about dreams of dead dragons and tapping ancient power but Setsuna only had eyes for those burning slits. She could see past them now, could see deep into the person that would trade a part of their soul for such power and yet not use it before now.

"Ranma" she called again as he took up position in front of her, his clawed hands slightly raised. But he hadn't struck. Slowly she reached out a hand, stopping as his draconic growl flared louder and then restating when he calmed.

Her touch was like water to the desert. No sooner had her slender fingers touched the young man's face than the fires seemed to pull back. As if recalled by a great vacuum they sucked back into the young man, the glow dying. For the briefest of moments Setsuna saw the blue-grey eyes of the boy Genma had sold then the vista fell.

Michuru watched as the eldest senshi caught their mentor and gently lowered him to the floor, settling him into her lap. For an instant jealousy replaced fear and then it was gone as she too reached down to help the man that life had once again kicked in the teeth.

"Tomorrow night" he whispered.

"What?" Setsuna asked, already suspecting the answer. "What happens tomorrow night?"

"Hell" the man replied through parched lips, "We're going to hell."


	12. hearts of Blood and Steel

**Prices paid, Chapter 12.**

The news hit the girls like a bombshell. The assault had always been a distant aim, never hat imminent, it had seemed they always had time. Now the time was gone. The world seemed to shift under the three of them.

"Why now?" Setsuna asked, from her position cradling her teacher's head. In reply Ranma waived to a blood splattered letter on the floor by the wall. At Setsuna's nod Ami crossed the room and picked it up, ignoring the dark stain on the wall. The words were exquisitely written but had become smudged by the dark red blotches that covered the paper. She opened it out and began to read. Her face may have remained coldly analytical but her eyes grew harder with every word.

"Well?" Michuru prompted, one step from a demand, from her position at Ranma's side. Her impatience was new but her concern was old. She was all too aware how te past while had change her temperament but counted it small cost in comparison to that which her lover and child had paid.

"Its from Urd" Ami explained, "The timestream has been travelling exceptionally slowly in the area you will 'visit'" Ami said, reading the missive aloud, "But as of the fifteenth this will reverse," Ami looked up, into the eyes of her friends. "According to Skuld, as of midnight tomorrow every hour of our days will be a year of torment for our friends, and the rate of change will only increase form there," she explained, her face set cold and hard. Michuru let a small gasp escape her mouth, then looked at Ranma. He alone knew what this would mean and his determination spoke volumes.

For a long time silence seemed to reign, each person seemingly lost in the implications of the news. If they didn't go now then they were condemning the other senshi to worse torment. But to go meant the ultimate risks, their very souls would be on the line down there. To go before they were prepared could mean failure and that meant at best torment and torture. But not to go? To wait, perhaps just a few more weeks? From the look on Ranma's face every girl knew that was not an option.

"You have this evening and tomorrow morning to make your peace," Ranma rasped, through a throat that had known little other than fiery hate over the last few days. "Say the words you need to say, take your last breaths of good air. We will meet at the rowan tree in Juuban cemetery an hour before dusk." With that he fought his way to his feet, still shaky. "Bring everything you need." With that he began staggering off towards the back yard.

Ami looked at Michuru and the two of them looked at Setsuna. Reading their need she nodded and the two quickly left. She however just remained there, kneeling lost in thought and an internal battle. Finally she came to a decision.

O

O

She found Ranma knelt in the Dojo, facing the one thing he had apparently not wrecked in his temper, the family shrine. There, ensconced in the very centre, stood a new picture, Nodoka, the mother Ranma never knew. Peering forward she could see the picture was an old one, Nodoka was still in her prime, standing in an unnamed dojo, dressed in fighting gear and with sword in hand. It was a side of her that Setsuna had barely guessed at.

"She was the best" Ranma rasped from his position on the floor, "Before she gave it all up to have me she was the very best in the land." His face was locked on the picture, as if trying to extract some trace of the woman, some sign that she still lingered. "She never told me" he added, "I found the trophies stored away in the attic." Of course he didn't mention that he had found them during a flight of rage where he had been looking for still more things to smash.

"It wasn't demons" Setsuna said in a voice barely above a whisper. She knelt to one side of him, at an angle so that she could see his face without obscuring his view of the shrine. "She served her family with honour."

"She's gone to a better place?" Ranma sneered. But he relaxed at the end, a small sigh escaping her lips, "I hope so," he whispered.

"We can check" Setsuna said, reaching out a hand to the suddenly frail hero. He looked at her, lost and a little confused. "You have a goddess or two who seem crazy about doing you favours" she explained, returning his gaze with one of her own. The sudden brightness she saw reflected there reminded her all too much that this man had seen so very little of real life since he was a child.

Then it was gone and her sensei was back, determined sure and in charge. " I have time to see them today" he announced, standing and squaring his shoulders. "I should see if they have any last minute news anyway."

"I'll get your coat" Setsuna said, rising. At his silent enquiry she looked him straight in the eye and added, "I have nowhere else to go either."

O

O

The pair of them arrived at the Morisato house-shrine a little over half an hour later. At some point during the trip one or the other of them had clasped their companion's hand, offering comfort through the physical fact of their presence. As Setsuna went to ring the doorbell they finally dropped the handclasp but not the bond that it had built.

"Hello?" called a sweeter that pure voice from within. Moments later Belldandy opened the door to greet her visitors, only to be struck paler than any sheet. There standing in front of her once more was the living symbol of her darkest shame. Even from across the boundary of the sacred earth she could feel the muted sorrow that poured off the young man. The pain and suffering drove another nail into her heart.

"Excuse me" interrupted a green haired beauty next to the doorway. Bell turned to look at her, for a moment not recognising the hardened form that Setsuna now presented. "We were wondering if you could help us some more?" the hard eyes beauty continued. The irony was like icy daggers into Bell's chest.

"Oh" she replied ducking her head and trying to stem the press of tears that threatened. "How can I" she began, stumbling over the words.

"Ranma's mother was killed" Setsuna replied, not failing to notice the flinch Belldandy gave as the news stabbed into her, "and we were hoping to know something more of her."

"Oh my" Bell replied, guessing what they were asking, and knowing tat it was against the rules.

"We were going to ask Urd" Setsuna explained, studying the goddess who seemed unable to take her eyes from the mourning form of her mentor, "But perhaps you could…"

"Hai" replied the divinity in question, her mind made up, it was the least she could do. "Please come in" she offered, backing from the doorway. Only her guests didn't obey, she looked up to meet Setsuna's curious expression. Then she realised that holy ground was a bar to her former charge and another nail hit home. "I will" she began, her mind struggling to deal with the guilt and think of a way around the problem at the same time, "I will find what you need to know and meet you in the park" she told them, nodding towards a green area not far away. Setsuna looked at Ranma and then back at the goddess. She nodded.

"We will see you soon" the senshi leader replied, before turning at falling in beside her dark companion.

After the door shut the lone goddess placed her back against it and slid to the floor, her pretty face enclosed by her delicate hands. It took Bell much longer than she would have liked to stop the tears that were running down her face.

O

O

Meanwhile across town Michuru had returned to a spot she hadn't been since before she had met Ranma. She picked up her lover's unfeeling hand and squeezed it, fighting to remain strong.

"Anata" she whispered, feeling the need to explain, to expiate. "Tomorrow I'm going to hell." A wry smile crossed her face, one of the first things her lover had ever said to her had been an instruction to do just that. The very idea of being a magical girl had just rubbed Haruka in all the wrong ways. "I'm not sure how much of a chance we stand but I have to try." The water senshi continued, it was almost as if she could hear her lover's objections.

"I know that you would want me to think of myself, to move on to treasure what I have but I can't" Michuru's tears warred with the new steel in her soul. "You told me enough times when we were young and feeling morbid," Michuru continued in a simple parody of her soul-mate's voice "If I am gone you must find another," then, squeezing Haruka's hand and in her own voice she added "But you should have known I can't. Without you nothing is worth it."

"We'll be together one way or another" she promised, laying a kiss on Haruka's unfeeling lips. "One way or another."

O

O

Ami's reuninon had gone much better. She had managed to find the time during Ranma's training to send the occasional message to her remaining parent and the woman was more than happy to see her child. Not least of which because the girl seemed to have made a miracle recovery.

For the first few hours everything was grand, then Ami told her mother the things she never wanted to hear. That her little girl was going off to fight again, against the same people that had killed her friends and taken her sight.

Then the mother and doctor had screamed, commanded and wept in equal measure, but none of it had worked. Her baby had been born again hard and no amount of pleading would shift her from this course.

"I have to go mother" she explained in an even, almost toneless voice, "the others are counting on me. My princess is counting on me."

"No" Dr Mizuno sobbed "Not you, let somebody else.."

"There is nobody else" Ami offered in a softer tone, "it has to be done." She lifted her mother's chin and looked her straight in the reddened tearing eyes. "I must do this" she insisted and finally her mother understood.

Dr Mizuno pulled her daughter to her, clutching the young woman to her breast with all the love in her heart. "Go my sweet" she whispered, "and may the Kami keep you safe" she prayed.

Despite knowing full well she was relying on darker forces Ami didn't argue. Instead she returned the hug and then left, shutting the door as gently as she could on her way out.

It still sounded like a coffin to Dr Mizuno.

O

O

"Are we ready?" the green haired woman asked her companion. The two of them were, at her insistence, sat under a broad tree in the park. Ranma had resisted the idea, determined to use the time for practice instead but Setsuna had countered with another concern.

"It's not relevant" Ranma countered, ripping up a handful of grass.

"Explain" Setuna replied, catching his hand and turning him to face her.

"We've run out of time" he explained and she saw the source of his determination.

"You're concerned about Usagi" she surmised, "you know what the change I time means and you want to save her before it gets too severe." Ranma nodded. "So?" she prompted. He didn't immediately reply but she could see the flicker in his eyes. "Don't try and spare me" she insisted "anything we aren't ready for…"

"In the Marches at the edges of Hell time flows faster around greater concentrations of demonic power," Ranma explained his voice hard, his eyes boring into hers. Setsuna gasped a little, the implications hammering home.

"So-" she began

"Some dark power is rising in the area," Ranma confirmed, "the area your princess is in will become darker and nastier until the power is fully manifest. All the while they will be hurting her." Setsuna was all but stunned to hear the hint of fear in his voice.

"What did they do to you?" she muttered aloud. Her mind wondering what even a demon could do to put such a fear into a man that could do the things this one had done.

"Hope you never know" Ranma replied, his eyes closing, the windows to his mind shutting as she watched.

"Hello?" came a voice and the two companions turned, rising into ready stanes. In front of them stood a very contrite looking Goddess, one who was very startled by the sudden martial display.

"I found the news you needed" the goddess offered. Inside she was still hurting, her pain little assuaged by the gesture that she was doing. She had followed his dark shadow to the tree and there she had called before she had seen them. It was only when she spotted them that she had seen just how close they were. Once again it looked like she had denied young Saotome a chance at happiness.

"Thank-you" replied Ranma in his velvet and gravel voice. In Bell's heart light began to shine once more.

"This means a great deal to us" Setsuna added, only afterwards noticing the significant 'us.' She received a file enclosed in a brown folder, much like the one Ranma had received all that lifetime ago from Mara.

"I couldn't pull the whole file" Bell explained, eager to please. Setsuna momentarily mused over the word 'couldn't' but let it pass. She handed the file to Ranma and watched as he opened it.

She saw his face change from thoughtful and determined to the happiest she had ever seen it. His smile was all but radiant. Her answering one was nothing short.

Absentmindedly he passed the file to her and quickly she too scanned its contents. She re-read it more than once before passing the file back to the goddess.

"Thank you" she said in a voice straight form the heart.

The clouds over Bell's heart let a little more light in. She watched as the two of them clasped hands and shared a silent moment of happiness before walking off through the suddenly summery day.


	13. Last moments

**Prices Paid 13. Into the Breach.**

Dawn arrived late at the Saotome house, a darkness would linger there for a long time to come. Once again there was police officer posted at the door, but this one was steadfastly refusing to even look at the building let alone investigate the noises from inside.

As it happened the noises were from a far more innocuous source than his frightened mind imagined. Each of the quartet had returned to the house during the previous evening and this morning they were merely going about their morning business as best they could in the damaged house.

Ami was in the room she had turned into the armoury, doing last minute upgrades on their gear. She had been there all night and the source of most of the noises that were currently loosening officer Sato's bowels were the drills, saws and routers that the youngest senshi was putting to use. As she too heard the noises of life her stomach took the time to remind her that she had never actually got around to having that midnight snack and that she would need all the energy she could get. Rumbling away she stood, stretched and headed for the ruined kitchen.

Michuru had returned late last night and all but crept into the house. She had spent most of the evening sat watching her love and that had takenits toll on her worse than most training sessions. Nevertheless she had been unable to sleep and so had found her way to the dojo to take some exercise. She had ended up working herself to exhaustion and falling asleep on the hardwood floor. This morning she was the first one up and by the time Ami emerged from her 'workshop' Michuru had already started on breakfast.

The biggest surprise came a little after Ami started to help her friend. Both of them were more than a little startled to see both Ranma and Setsuna emerge from the same room, holding hands no less. That they then parted with a smile and a whispered conversation did nothing to assuage the conclusions their minds were drawing. Setsuna went to the bathroom and Ranma, with his hair still loose, came into the kitchen and stretched, before greeting the other two senshi in a very sleepy manner.

It took Ranma quite some time to notice that his two youngest students had been frozen in place. A quick scan revealed no invading magical energies, and a fast check for auras revealed only the four of them within the building. He reached out and touched Michuru's chest to see if there was some trace of the holding spell still lingering about the gaping girl.

"Wha'?" Michuru gasped, intelligently as Ranma's prod released her from her mental shutdown. "You. Setsuna. Room. Together" she managed. Ranma responded with a quizzical look and reached past her to taste the miso.

"Mmm, good" he offered, picking up a ladle and pouring out two bowls. Then with one last look at the two crazy girls he went out to see what he could scrounge up in the way of a table.

"Did?" Ami asked.

"uh" Michuru replied.

"I thought I" Ami guessed

"Me too" Michuru agreed.

"But Setsuna?"

"And Ranma?" The two girls shook their heads in tandem, looked at each other and then got their own breakfast at lightening speed.

By the time Ranma had set up a table and found some cutlery the other two senshi were already sat opposite him, staring. He looked back at them, they looked at him, he smiled and shrugged before beginning to eat.

"They did!" announced Michuru, extrapolating her own opinions from the smile. Just then Setsuna re-appeared from the bathroom before wandering over and sitting down next to Ranma. She offered him a smile of thanks, got a warm one in reply and then began eating her own breakfast.

"They must have" Michuru stated.

"Must have what?" Setsuna asked, a picture of innocence.

"You. Ranma. Room" Ami explained, helpfully.

"Oh" Setsuna responded, looking at Ranma, and suppressing a smile. He looked at her, doing his own innocent expression, either that or he had completely missed what was going on.

"Thanks Set-chan" he offered out of the blue as he took another mouthful. "Yesterday was just what I needed" he added, without looking up. Ami's mouthful of miso exploded across the table.

"No problem Ran-chan" Setsuna, "Happy to help."

"Ara?" Michuru whispered, hand poised halfway to her mouth. "You did?" she said suddenly less sure.

"Did what?" Setsuna asked, fighting the giggles.

"You, Ranma. Room" Ami echoed. Setsuna looked at her fellows for a moment and then shook her head.

"Don't be silly" she said, not answering the question at all. "Now Ranma, what do we need to do today?" she asked, neatly changing the subject. Ranma responded by putting down his cutlery and pushing his bowl aside.

"First we are going to need to go over the 'actions on' again, then individual weapon capabilities, then we can get a few drills in before nightfall." He noticed the winces that the comments caused. "Ladies," he explained, "I offered you a day off and you chose to return" he finished. He stood, gathering the now-empty bowls, "we'll start in half an hour, get your warm ups done and I'll meet you in the Dojo."

No sooner had he left than the other girls rounded on Setsuna, gazes set to 'inquisition'. Setsuna couldn't help but smile before standing, wincing a little, and then heading away to change. If she just happened to add an extra bounce to her step it was probably coincidence.

Behind her the other tow girls turned to look at each other and grit their teeth. That woman was just so frustrating!

o

o

Several hours later all four of them were in the Dojo. They were dressed in their training suits and sweating heavily. Ranma had really been putting them theough their paces today and, knowing what would start tonight, they had been giving it their all. Then a call came from the house, a woman's voice ringing clear.

Ranma held up a hand to still his team, then waved his hand out sideways. The girls responded immediately, taking up combat positions in ready stances. Then Ranma recognised the signature of the intruder and relaxed, signalling for the others to follow suit.

"In the Dojo" he called out.

"Okay" responded the voice, now recognisable as Urd's. Soon afterwards the goddess in question appeared around the dojo door. She was wearing a plunging deep blue dress with it's long skirt cut up to just before the point of indecency. On her feet she wore long high boots with lightning patterns on them and in her hands she carried a very ornate box. Her smile was little short of lascivious, she only rarely got to see a man of Ranma's physique looking quite so…impressive.

"Hi" she said throatily, one step from a leer.

"What do you want" Asked Michuru, temper showing.

"Mmmm" Urd replied, looking at Ranma through her long lashes and letting the slightest hint of a tongue lick her lips. "Let me think about that for a moment" she breathed.

"I mean" Michuru corrected, "why are you here?" Urd was silent for a few more heartbeats before shaking her head to clear the oh-so-hentai thoughts that filled it and turning to notice the girls in the room.

"I come bearing presents" she said, sashaying over to Ranma and fixing him with her lascivious gaze once more. She handed him the gold and mahogany box, lingering over finally releasing it and being sure to brush his fingers with hers when she did.

In the background Michuru rolled her eyes and Setsuna smiled one of her secret smiles. Ranma, for his part, raised an eyebrow and then looked down to the box. With care he opened the lid, to find, ribbons.

The ribbons were done in golds silvers and a shifting array of primary colours. Every inch of them was covered in runic writing that he recognised as the script of heaven and they were all but glowing with divine energy.

"Are these?" he asked, raising his hear to look at Urd. She responded with a triumphant smile and a twinkle in her eye.

"New and unbound" she replied, "The very latest in divine defence-wear. Done in this years colours, guaranteed to match any outfit your young ladies wear to the ball" she added with a smile, "although I wouldn't advise you to wear one."

"Huh?" asked Michuru, suddenly leaning over Ranma's shoulder. Ami was busy trying to interpret the readings her eyes were getting and Setsuna was watching the goddess very closely.

"This is very generous of you" Ranma replied, with a wariness in his voice.

"Well as long as you forget exactly where they came from" Urd replied, "then I will find some way for you to repay me later." The last was said with more than a little naked suggestiveness. This of course earned her evil looks from Michuru.

"What do they do exactly?" Setsuna asked.

"Ah" Urd responded, turning to Setsuna in such a way as to make her long hair sway. "I'm glad you asked that. These ribbons are semi-sentient personal polymorphic protective devices. They will bind themselves to a wearer and attune themselves to their emotions. Should you be at ease the floating ribbon will reflect that, should you be in a more violent mood they will assist you." She leaned in a little to Ranma "should you be in a more …'passionate' mood they will help there too" she breathed huskily.

"Help how?" asked Ami.

"Despite their fragile appearance when required the ribbons will take on all the hardness and weight of steel. A strike from one of these is every bit as dangerous as a strike from one of your staves."

Ranma snorted, doubting that even the best constructs could rival the skill of his team. But through the stolen memories of his demon predecessor he had witnessed the effect of the weapons and could not doubt their efficacy. He held out the box to each of his senshi, one after the other.

"They were modelled after a chain weapon worn by Hell's champion" he explained. "Once attuned they will react to your wishes, behaving like a cross between a pet and an impressive weapon." He turned to Urd.

"Thank you" he said earnestly. She smiled and threw a little bow with a flourish before stepping in close and wrapping her arms around his neck.

"For luck" she breathed before laying a very passionate kiss on him. Michuru's fist clenched and Ami's head whipped around to watch Setsuna's reaction. Only to be disappointed, the senshi of Pluto was once more wearing her unreadable smile.

Urd turned and left. Ranma paused for a few moments before turning to the girls. "Now" he began "we have to build the capabilities of these new weapons into our drills" each of the girls sagged just a little at this. "First lets get them attuned" he began and any hopes for a break were quickly dashed.

O

O

As dusk fell the four soldiers were gathered in the Juuban cemetery. They were for the first time dressed in full gear for the mission. Each girl was dressed in the magi-tech camouflaging armour suits that they had gained from the last fortress. Each one had a custom made communicator at their right ear, small antennae rising up above their heads. They all wore combat webbing, its pouches full of things from flash grenades to medical kits. On their backs they wore small backpacks of extra gear, things like ropes and dried food. Setsuna and Michuru flanked their smaller sister, each one carrying their staff weapon at the ready. Around the three of them their new ribbons circled, fluttering and diving in the light night breeze.

Ranma stood facing them, his own dark clothes changed to a more martial aspect with plates guarding vital areas and a heavy cloak of shadow wrapped around him. He, like the others, was stood in silence, a shared moment to harden their resolve.

"Now" he said in a voice of adamantium, "We go."

Behind him the portal opened, andtogther they stepped through. The assault on Hell had begun.


	14. Fugue Plain

**Prices Paid 14.**

Hell. It stretched out in every direction as far as the eye could see. Without the curvature of the Earth to create a horizon Hell seemed to stretch on forever. A blasted landscape of rock and fire flown over by permanent stormclouds that reflected the land's evil red glow. In the distance, illuminated by the flames and flashes of heel power loomed mountains that had never known erosion. They stabbed into the sky like knives into tender flesh, razor backed and relentless and around their peaks flew beasts of wing and claw.

Ranma and the girls were crouched in a fold on the side of their own razor rock formation looking out at the landscape before them. The portal they had come through had closed with all the speed it had opened and they had been left here. They could feel the heat, the alien oppressiveness of the land in front of them. If the girl's hadn't been wearing their full suits they would have also been able to smell the vile brimstone that tainted the air.

"Oh shit!" Ami murmured, her readings filling out facts she didn't want to know. Facts like the fuel of the fires being made of damned souls and the storm being home to millions of demons.

"So this is Hell" Michuru observed, "It could be worse" she offered, not quite sure how but willing to believe such anyway.

"Not really" Setsuna corrected, looking at Ranma to check her thoughts. "We are in the borders, at the very edge of the realm. Hell isn't so strong here" she argued, suppressing a shiver at the implications. "It's much worse closer in."

"We move" announced Ranma, suddenly beginning his descent down the scree slope. The girls reacted immediately, falling in according to their drills before they even realised what they were doing. In a few scant minutes the four of them were jogging across the blasted red desert leaving the mount far behind them.

They were all well aware of the long journey they had ahead of them and of the dangers it entailed yet each one reflected nothing so much as a cold determination. The time for fear was long past and in action they had found purpose.

Twenty minutes into their run Michuru spotted the first beast. A demonic melding of a car sized mosquito and a bull, the beast was flying its seven wings and lance like beak on an attack course.

"Red, three O'clock high" she called.

"Base level" Ami replied, her scans revealing it to be one of the less-sentient creatures resident in the landscape.

"Cut!" Michuru cried launching a high pressure jet from the end of her trident. The beam tore trough several of the beast's wings. It was immediately thrown into a spiralling crash dive that was only halted by the hard reality of the desert floor. They didn't stop to finish it, other denizens would do that for them.

They ran on.

o

o

Hell knows no night and day. There are no cycles of a life giving orb to mark out the length of a soul's torment here. Instead each exile to the realm keeps their own time, acting how they choose when they choose. The four heroes were no different. They ran for hours, a monumentous trek punctuated only by the attacks of hell-spawn. The regime Ranma had pushed onto them combined with the abilities granted so long ago to mean that the girls had literally run for well over twenty four hours before they stopped.

The heroes 'made camp' in the shadow of another rocky outcrop. There they took the time to check the minor injuries they had picked up along the way and recheck the path they were taking on Ami's scanned map.

"We're being followed" Ranma noted. The girls looked out the way they had come and sure enough long into the distance was a significant cloud of dust, right astride their backtrail.

"Ami?" Michuru asked.

"Out of range for anything detailed" the shorter girl replied.

"Probability?" Setsuna asked, looking at Ranma, the only one of them whi had actually spent any time here before.

"Gregs" he replied, shifting his pack.

"Lesser demons" Ami explained, "not much smarter than dogs, but a lot more clawed. Addicted to human flesh." Ami added, as if anything here wasn't.

"Can we lose them?"

"Probably" Ranma replied, "when we hit the range they will most likely turn back. The creatures there look on them as a tasty treat."

"So we move on?"

"Hai" Ranma agreed, casting one last look around the girls and getting nods in reply. Then they were off again, jogging across the storm lashed plain towards the distant mountains.

Behind them the gregs quickened their pace.

O

O

"It's going to be close" Michuru surmised. Ahead the shards of the range loomed, blood red teeth emerging from the pain into the brooding sky. Behind them the gregs had been steadily gaining ground. It seemed that the senshi were not going to make the mountains before the beasts caught them.

"Pushing harder would only force them to do the same" Setsuna replied over the communicators.

"Nowhere to fight them here" Ami supplied, "I am reading a pack of around one- fifty." She added, having finally got a more detailed scan.

"We push it out and race for the ridge" Ranma ordered. That would string out their pursuers and even though the first few would catch up long before the main pack the four of them should be able to deal with that. "Go!" he ordered and the girls broke into a full run, t the same time flipping the formation so he would be at the rear.

At the same time a change came over the pursuing pack. Seeing their quarry make a break for it they let out a cry and broke into full chase. Now gregs, like most demons are far from identical to each other, some have four limbs, some as many as twelve; some are scaled others feathered and perhaps most importantly some are fast and some are very fast. Within scant seconds a handful of the demonlings had opened up quite a lead on the rest of the pack.

"Hardpoint located" Ami supplied, she had managed to find a natural pinch point at the edge of the range. It should be able to serve as another way to break down the numbers of their chase party. The other girls saw the region highlighted on their helmet visors and adjusted to make for it.

By now the first of the gregs had managed to catch the back of their group. It was a lanky specimen with legs twice as long as the rest of its body. Unlike many of the others its hide was leathery rather than armoured. It was however much like the rest of its breed in that it was distinctly short on brain power. It made the last mistake of its life, coiling its legs under it, it sprang at the apparently unprotected back of the trailing runner.

With an almost negligent half turn and sweep of his clawed hand Ranma tore its guts out without breaking stride, leaving it flailing and screeching on the floor. It's cries did not last for long, instead the very next beast behind it leapt on the fallen creature and began to feast.

Two other gregs managed to reach Ranma before his party made the rocks. Both of them met similar fates to the first, left maimed for their fellows' tender mercies. But the delay did not hold the pack for long.

Scant seconds after the last of their party make it through the defile Setsuna and Michuru were swinging almost constantly to slay the gregs trying to force themselves through the rapidly filling gap. Michuru's trident was soon red to her wrists and Setsuna's staff tip, ordinarily bright and bold, was likewise soon covered in the vital fluids of the screeching beasts.

The two of them used very little magic indeed, there was simply no need. By main force alone the pair of them were exerting their dominance over the hounding demons. It was only a matter of time before the fact filtered through to the minds of the beasts themselves.

With a wail of frustration the pack ceased it's futile charge, suddenly ceasing their impromptu suicide. Without the heels of their quarry to drag them on the pack was suddenly more than a little confused. The mountains in front of them had long been a source of trepidation and were once again proving to be so. Yet the heap of fallen in front of them was enticement enough to stay, at least for a while.

Then the decision was taken out of their hands, a massive fin backed lizard leapt from hiding into the middle of their pack. With it's razor teeth and many horned and clawed legs it soon set about slaying the intruders into its domain.

"Time to go" Ranma observed. The girls nodded and quickly fell in behind, they were off again.

O

O

The way through the mountains was no less hazardous than the desert path. Instead of flying oversized mosquitoes ad running gregs the party had to watch for leaping lizards and rock spiders. They also had to repeatedly double back and retrace their steps, having followed promising ways only to find them ending in impassable barriers.

Of course the amazing abilities of Ami's scanner and the superhuman distances they could jump made these instances much rarer than they could have been. The terrain however seemed to be conspiring against them, gorges and false ridges appearing as if from nowhere.

The going was so tough that Ranma and the senshi actually decided to stop. Their tempers were fraying and their patience shot, so they found a cave, killed the beast who owned it and made camp.

For the first time in days they shared a light meal and took it in turns to sleep. The time gave everyone space to calm back down and unwind. Nevertheless the group's leader and youngest member spent much of the 'night' going over the fine scans she had taken of the area, looking for a way through.

It worked. The next time the group set out they went with a clearer path and found the going far easier. With a few extra fights and a bit of climbing the four of them made their way through the heart of the mountains. At one point a giant beast had dropped onto the party from on high and thrown the lot of them hundreds of feet down a rock slope. It had been planning on feasting upon the tenderised remains it would find at the bottom. Instead it had found a very annoyed quartet and a swift demise. Nevertheless the fall had broken Ami's left arm added significantly to the minor injuries of the others.

It was another setback, but once again determination shined through. Together the party found ways to compensate and soon later they were looking out onto the plains the other side of the range.

Below them stretched the marches of Hell, the land Hell's forces were expanding into, settling and making there own. It also included the bleak fastness where the four heroes were aimed.

From their vantage the group got its first look at the fortress they planned on assaulting. It stood out from the plain like an up-thrust fist. At it's crown stood the heart of the hold, an irregular shaped keep festooned with spikes and banners. Around its head swooped hundreds of tiny speck, demonkin birds gathered to feast on the wastes of the castle.

"Whoa!" Michuru muttered. Setsuna and Ranma just set their gazes, faces hardening still more. From here on out things were only going to get tougher.


	15. Into the jaws

**Chapter 15.**

The trek across the plain under the view of the castle seemed to take an inordinate amount of time. Each member of the small group could feel imagined eyes on them as they all but crawled over the dusty ground. Of course they knew that their suits would hide them from any such casual gaze and that they could see that their efforts not to kick up dust were bearing fruit. It just wore on their nerves like a blunt hacksaw. Now that they had reached the filed of discarded bones around the base of the tower things had only got worse.

Ranma was a noted exception to this false feeling. He was consciously blanketing their auras with a careful construct of his own, hoping to blend his darkness in with the ambient energies of the area. With every step it got easier. His senses were telling him that his fears were more than justified, the fortress was built on a dark font.

The demonic rulers of the hold would be directly drawing their energy from the outpouring. Much as Ranma's torturers ,and indeed he himself, had done these demons would be bolstering their own abilities with the all energies they could absorb. It meant they would be faster, stronger and, perhaps worst of all, nearly indestructible due to fantastic healing rates. It was not good news, but nor was it entirely unexpected.

The key lay in two things, firstly a demon's ability to absorb and utilise the energy was limited by all sorts of factors, including willpower and intelligence and secondly the font could be capped.

Which is why the team weren't going for the obvious strike. Ordinarily any attack on a fastness such as this would be aimed squarely at the master of the hold, kill him and any degree of truce between the other devils would break down, destroying the effectiveness of any counter attack. Much as had happened when Ranma had killed the Marquis the other demons would fall on each other in an orgy of violence, desperate to enforce their dominance and the right to succeed the fallen. This attitude was so entrenched in demon thinking that the 'kill the leader' tactic had been used effectively since before mankind ever existed. The fortress, the tactics of its defence and indeed the power structures below the top devil were all built around this very idea.

"Ami" Ranma asked. The four of them were currently hanging two dozen feet off the ground by the ropes they had recently fixed for this very purpose. As one they were waiting with baited breath for Ami's judgement.

"Looks good" she replied, turning her face from the wall she had apparently been studying so intently. The others let out a small sigh of relief, this was the fourth site they had tried and every moment they spent doing this brought them closer to discovery.

"Good" rasped Ranma. The others were all too aware of the change that had come over him as they had got closer. One result of his cloaking had been an inversion of it's emanations, the result of that had been the girls being bathed in his ever growing power. With every step closer to the font he had grown darker and more demonic. Now his eyes were dark pits of evil power, his claws solid lengths of dark metal, even his armour seemed to have metamophasised into an eviller version, one that accommodated his all but solid wings.

As Ami watched Ranma drew back one clawed fist and pounded it into the wall. It gave way inwards as if it was made of icing sugar, crumbling and cracking in a spray of dust. Inside was revealed an irregular chamber. Perhaps a cell of some kind, there was a door set into the far wall.

Without another word the demon touched man led the way through the new hole. With another swipe of his claws he destroyed the cell-door, turning it into so many splinters. The girls fell in behind as fast as they could, automatically falling into a well drilled formation.

Several small demons came to investigate the noise, running from a guard room a couple of levels above. They were small winged creatures, armed with fan, claw and whip, but otherwise defenceless. They also lacked the true intelligence necessary to connect the sudden destruction with the apparent humans who seemed to be invading.

Ranma swatted the first into the wall, where it hung bonelessly for a few moments before slowly sliding down, leaving a trail of cracks and gore behind. The second pushed home it's attack at Ranma's flank, It was squewered through the chest by the prongs of Neptune's trident, the holy energy killing it deader than ever should have been possible. The third and forth attempted to flee, suddenly realising that the intruders were beyond their abilities. They never made it, two neat blasts from Pluto sheared them into pieces as neat planes of existence slid trough them.

"Down" commanded Ami, simultaneously sparking up the subroutines designed to search for their comrades.

With a small gesture of acknowledgement the team moved on, shifting Ami into a more defended position as they did.

"I am reading a much larger concentration of creatures above us" she announced, "they appear top be surrounding a powerful source of dark energy."

"The lord of the keep" Ranma surmised, "they were waiting for us."

"Then the princess is-"

"Probably in the middle of that," Ranma agreed. "It won't take them long to realise what we are up to," he added, tactical adjustments racing through his mind.

"We'll cap the font" Setsuna suggested, "You give them what they want." Ranma nodded quick agreement, right now his blood was singing for mayhem and this seemed the best way to get it.

"Go" he ordered, letting them rush past him.

"Be careful" Setsuna warned, more than the others she knew how tempting surrendering to the madness was. She saw her words hit home, saw a glint of blue break though the darkness in Ranma's eyes. He nodded again and they were gone.

O

O

Vorlaag was a proud creature, he had fought his way up though the ranks of hell to reach his place at his master's right hand. With ruthless cunning the two of them had murdered, begged, weaselled and lied their way to power after Balthazaar's death. Now the moment they had both been waiting for since that fateful time had finally arrived, the foolish being that had stolen the essence of their Marquis had returned. Now that power would finally be his. That was the key word here of course, Vorlaag meant 'his' and not 'their's' the moment had come for him to slip out of his master's shadow and seize power for himself. He would drain the soul out of the fool and use it to challenge the new 'Baron.'

"Mistake" rasped a voice. Vorlaag had just enough time to realise that in his daydreams he had lost track of how far he had travelled. The enemey had apparently reversed course and turned back to attack them, what should have been a foolish ploy. Vorlaag had brought a host of lesser devils to slow the intruder down long enough for him to deal with it. Only the bastard wasn't playing fair.

Pain exploded across Vorlaag's face, his skull was literally stripped to the bone and then some as four dark claws tore off the demon's features. He threw up his own upper right arm to stop a second blow only to find the limb severed neatly at the elbow. Then Vorlaag finally realised the depths of his mistake, the intruder was not only tapping the dark energy but doing it at a rate far higher than himself. A sudden bitterness filled his twisted spirit, his master would have known all too well the discrepancy, and yet had sent him down to face the intruder. In doing so the Baron had betrayed their trust and sentenced Vorlaag to death.

"Die!" commanded Ranma, blazing with dark energy. As his left knuckles reached the belly of the beast he used the used the same trick that killed the Marquis, he grabbed at the energy contained in the demon and tried to siphon it off.

"No!" burbled Vorlaag in an almost incoherent cry of fear and rage. At the same time he hurled himself bodily into the nearest wall. He managed to drive Ranma's claw all the deeper through him, severing his horned spine but also managed to distract the martial artist from his lethal technique.

With another supreme effort that was more desperation than skill Vorlaag threw his assailant off of him, losing any hope of victory in the process as Ranma finished the process of severing his torso. In agony he had not known for centuries Vorlaag fell to the floor, his entrails splayed out about him. Already he could feel flesh and carapace crawling its way back across his face, regenerating the damaged tissue. Soon he would he able to see again, if he only had the chance.

Somewhere nearby he could hear the sounds of his minions dying in their droves. Every so often a spay of fluid splattered across his fallen form, gory testimony of another fallen asset. The sound was getting quieter, the chittering cries of his troops less constant, Vorlaag knew what it meant and cold fear settled into what was left of his gut.

Then it went quiet, only the quiet sounds of settling gore broke the sudden oppressive silence. By now Vorlaag could just about make out some hazy shapes, his retina were healing by the heartbeat.

"You should'a brought more goons" rasped a voice, suddenly large in the silence. "It wouldn't have changed nuthin' but you might've at least got to see what killed you."

"Clurck You!" bubbled the fallen demon. Then there was only pain as Ranma grasped a clawed hand around his heart and tore the energy from Vorlaag's spirit, shredding the lieutenant's existence once and for all.

O

O

Downstairs Pluto was leading the way. The three of them were hurrying down into the bowels of the fastness, barely touching the stairs as they went. All the girls could easily make out the sudden burst of violence that echoed down the stairwell and it served to concentrate their minds all the more.

"Twenty feet" announced Mercury, her final warning before they reached a large metal bound door. Down here, so far below ground level the only light there was had been brought by the girls themselves. Nevertheless it was more than enough to make out the deep runes carved into the brass of the door bindings.

"Mercury?" Pluto asked, recognising the demonic script but failing to understand it further.

"Wards" Ami surmised, "set to harm whoever tries to pass the doorway."

"Can you…" Pluto prompted, receiving a confident nod in reply.

Mercury immediately set about studying the sigils, waving her good arm across them to follow their twisted, entwining patterns. Meanwhile the two other girls gave her space and listened to the sounds from above.

"He'll be alright" asserted Neptune, thinking aloud "You know how powerful he is now."

"That is part of what worries me" Pluto confided, "that sort of energy does you no good" she whispered. Neptune only nodded, her thoughts far above them.

"There!" Mercury announced, triumph written across her face and pointing at a particular point on the door, "Wipe that out and the wards will fail," she explained.

"Fine!" agreed Pluto turning her staff to point at the door. She felt the other girls get clear and then began summoning the energy she would need for a temporal shear.

"There may be a little-" Mercury began warning, but not fast enough. Pluto released the energy, creating a two-dimensional temporal shift. The molecules along the magical line were torn from each other, their bindings severed by irresistible force.

"BOOM!" said the door.

The sudden explosion enveloped the eldest senshi, concussing and torching her as it threw her backwards. Luckily for her the other senshi were there to break her fall. The three of them hit the far wall with a bone-crunching impact. The small corridor was filled with smoke, glittering in reaction to the magical fallout.

"Ow" cursed Pluto, Mercury agreed. Neptune would have joined in but her mouth was currently full of Pluto's elbow.

"Geerrroff" Neptune ordered, pushing the larger girl off her.

Professionalism kicked back in and soon the three of them ere stood at the ready, waiting for whatever lay beyond the door. Only nothing came. The smoke cleared and still nothing attacked.

"Weird" Neptune observed, looking to Mercury.

"Nothing" the other girl replied. Pluto took the decision and led the girls inside. They moved with all the precision that Ranma had beaten into them, covering the approach arcs, weapons readied and scans piercing the darkness around them. Still nothing happened.

"Very weird" Mercury agreed.

"The boss demon can't have trusted any of his minions so near the source of his power" Pluto guessed, looking around the room. "But where the hell is it?" she asked aloud.

"The readings are way off the scale" Mercury observed.

"So why can't we see it?" demanded Neptune, looking around the large circular chamber with a heavy frown. She could feel the dark energy, feel the alien impulses to do harm pressing at her mind but like the others could not see the source.

"Could he have disguised it in some way?" Pluto asked, musing aloud.

"Shifted it somehow?" Neptune guessed.

"I'll try adjusting the scanner parameters" Mercury suggests.

"I got the door" Neptune offers, moving to a guard position. Pluto nodded and took up her own position opposite, staff at the ready. All they could do was wait.


	16. Hell hath fury enough

**Chapter 16**

"Oh no" muttered Ami, her face paling under the visor. Immediately the others stilled, waiting for the bomb to drop. Finally the blue haired girl broke the ominous silence, "It's not here"

"What?" demanded Pluto as if daring the other girl to say her lies again.

"It's not here" the blue haired senshi re-iterated, "Somehow the master of this hold must have moved it." The news was horrifying, it meant that the trip down here had been wasted, all the time they had spent getting to this location nothing more than a distraction.

"Where?" asked Pluto, already fearing the answer.

"Up" replied Ami, confirming those fears, "the throne room. Ranma's walking into a trap"

"No" muttered Neptune her fears for Ranma overriding her own hard demeanour. She cast one backward glance towards the others before beginning the long climb back up the stairs. The others soon fell in behind, going at a light jog despite the risks. Each one knew they should slow down but their hearts just would not let them.

At the back Pluto suddenly faltered, was this Ranma's plan all along, and if so why. Surely he couldn't be planning on seizing the power for himself, not after all this time. She urged the others on faster, as if the quickened pace would lighten her heart.

Far above Ranma had made his way to his own destination. In fornt of his the vast doors of the Master's throne room loomed. At his feet lay the foolish guardians of that portal, their ripped bodies spread across the wide portico.

Ranma turned his neck once more and flicked back his ichor coated hair. Squaring his shoulders one last time he drew in a deep breath, and with it all the dark energy his body could hold. He mentally fastened his pact on the treacherous hate of the dragon and allowed it's energies to flow through his form. It was time.

The doors exploded inwards propelled by the dark fury of the invader. For a brief moment he stood there, resplendent in his dark aura, gathered shadows framing him as he flexed his long claws. The steady red rain that filled the room seemed not even to touch him.

In front of him stood the inner circle of the Hold-Master's demons, each one a champion in its own right, each one an avatar of evil and spite. As one they glared back at the presumptuous near mortal. Then as one the horde of them rushed, brandishing claw tooth and demon-blade, and crying defiance as they ran.

In the face of this Ranma stood deathly still, only the wild perturbations of his aura displaying his readiness for battle. Even at the first claw reached for him and it seemed that it had but molecules before it punctured skin, he did not move.

Then, as that claw shed the first blood, he exploded into motion, claws and horned aura carving dark swathes of destruction around him. Gravity and time, the laws of existence seemed to lose their holds on the demon touched warrior as he scythed through creatures old enough to have seen the fall of Babylon.

His form was lost in a mass of screetching, crying devils, unleashing their fury in dire effort.

Then the mass broke apart, propelled by an explosion of another force. Shrapnel that a heartbeat before had been devil-kin splattered and bounced off the walls of the chamber, some of it still shrieking defiance. And in the middle stood the revealed form of the invader.

Gone were the last traces of Genma's child. With darker than black spiked hair and an aura to match the demon warrior stood, claws outstretched and crackling with dark power. His clothes had been torn from his body, even the finest craftings of the Silver millennium unable to withstand the fury of the dark assault. Instead he stood clothed in his own darkness and the rude tracings of blood and ichor.

From the back of the room came the booming laugh of the tower's master.

"Well done!" he called, his voice full of timeless evil. "They had grown very tiresome"

Gradually the throne came into sight, the blood rain clearing at it's master's unspoken command. What they revealed would have neatly shattered the mind of most mortals. Standing up from a throne of ephemeral bound and tormented souls was the dark master of the hold. He stood a full twelve feet to the shoulder, his skin a deeper red than even the rain. Atop those shoulders a head rose, horned and proud, it's many glowing eyes shining with evil intelligence. It's barrel-like torso sported no less than eight arms, all of which carried both claw and spiky protrusion. Around it's waist hung it's only adornment, a heavy black belt, attached to which were long, spiked, dark chains, leading to the myriad of innocents bound at it's cloven feet.

"Now you have come to accept your destiny" it announced, idly stroking the matted red hair of one 'rain' coated unfortunate. "Balthazzar was a fool to try to control you" it announced, crushing that same girl's skull between his claws. "I am no fool"

Ranma's answer was a low growl, a sound impossible for any human throat. It carried with it promise of pain and death, a promise that shined clearly from the burning pits of his eyes. Slowly he advanced, floating above the floor on a wave of dark energy that cracked the slabs as it came.

"I am no fool" repeated the master demon, his voice velvet death. As he spoke he descended from the throne, casting his belt off and drawing a host of weapons.

The two figures closed to within fifteen feet of each other and the power crackled across the room. Each tainted soul was cramming as much energy from the dark font as it could, preparing for the battle to come.

Then the beast bowed, kneeling before the hovering dark warrior. Each hand laid aside one of the wicked implements of pain and he left himself defenceless. "You are the mightiest of us" the beats intoned "and only a fool would not see that. I offer you my service and my throne." With that he swept out a long claw gesturing towards the throne.

For a long moment the raging warrior held the bowing demon's burning gaze, then finally his own eyes flicked to the throne. He could clearly see the font of power bound within it, could see the way the chained souls filtered and controlled that power. With one glance Ranma could see the chance to become great enough to shake the pillars of existence. His demon-touched heart rejoiced, here was the prize. The final goal that all this struggle and pain had been towards. Untold power and with it the chance to wreak revenge on heaven, hell and the firmament itself. Nobody could ask for more. He took a pace forwards.

And stopped. There, wearing ony the barbed chain around her neck was the princess. The young woman who was the centre of the senshi's universe. Of his senshi's universe.

Those blue eyes tore straight into his blackened soul, warring with the pain and hate that dwelled there. Even as one part of him screamed at his right arm to sweep those blue orbs from existence and claim the senshi eternally for his own he realised that he was not that person.

The bowing master saw the change, saw the conflict and saw the new resolve, it was written all over the invader's aura. The cry that escaped his throat was full of every dark emotion, hate, envy, frustration, spite, greed and only a touch of fear. All his plans all his ambitions broken by one girl and her innocent eyes.

In the next instant he was up, weapons leaping unaided to his many hands and his whole form exploding into violent action. Ranma and his dark aura parried and the titanic forces clashed into a battle that could only see one survive.

Claw met blade; knee met elbow; sole met blade. The sheer speed of the combatants alone was enough to rend the air. Added to this the power of the darkness harness for destruction threatened to shatter the very tower. Lightning blasts of pure darkness crackled off them, blasting into the fabric of the chamber. Spiderwebs of cracks appeared on every wall, tiles lifted themselves from the floor only to shatter in mid air. From the ceiling gobbits of pustulent flesh fell, splattering and exploding into fresh showers of gore. And the furious tempo only increased.

o

o

Neptune led the way into the portico to the throne room. The way up had been remarkably easy to find, all the trio had been required to do was follow the trail of bodies. For the last short while she had been aware of a strange rolling thunder and only now could she see the cause.

In front of the three senshi the battle raged, even with their magically enhanced vision they could not follow it's intricacies. Wounds appeared and were healed all within the tiniest spaces of time. Pluto could see that even time itself was being used as a weapon but could not follow how.

"Usagi!" blurted Ami, spotting their princess still chained by the altar come throne. The other girls reacted immediately, following her gaze, questing for a glimpse of tier princess.

"The room" Michuru gasped, as a chunk of masonry fell from the ceiling.

"We must rescue them!" Pluto asserted. But even with her courage she could not bring herself to rush into that room and the maelstrom that it contained.

"We go round" announce Neptune, her face hard, there was no way she was going to fail her princess now. And without waiting for the others she entered the room, edging along the wall as fast as she could, aiming for the throne and it's precious prisoner.

Behind her the others fell into file, each praying in their own way to make it safely through the danger.

Again the hard training they had undergone proved it's worth, a toppling pillar all but ending their hopes forever. The only reason it did not was the speed of their reactions and their trust in each other's abilities. They all dived clear, and ran the last distance, leaving thoughts of the safety of their comrades for a time when such things might not cost them their lives.

Suddenly they were there, and in front of them, painted in red from head to toe, was the woman they had come for, the woman who had defined their lives.

"Usagi" Ami cried, wrapping her arms around the girl who was her oldest friend. Even the changes the mercury computer had wrought couldn't shield her from an event such as this.

"Cover your eyes?" Pluto ordered, hefting her staff and aiming at the heavy chain. As the others complied she brought her arms down and a fresh clap of thunder rolled, bouncing around the room.

The bleary eyes of the princess blinked as if awakening from a nightmare. "Ami?" she asked through parched and torn lips.

"Yes" Ami replied, in a voice heavy with emotion, gathering her friend to her oblivious to the transference of the red stain.

"How did you get here?" the princess asked, "and where?"

"Not now!" ordered Neptune, whose eyes remained on the fight. "For now we have to get out of here." Ami nodded and gathered up her friend, the armoured suit easily compensating for the extra weight.

"No!" Usagi insisted, memories returning, "we have to break the throne!" The other girls looked at her for a moment, then nodded, they were not about to start disbelieving their princess now.

As one they turned to the throne, bending their wills to see if they could see some way to it's destruction.

"Haruka?" gasped Neptune, recognising one of the tormented faces. The others looked where the gazed and could not fault her premise. Indeed surrounding the spirit form of their friend were similar ghostly shapes of the others. "But she isn't dead!" Michuru gasped.

"Then that is where we strike!" Pluto asserted, hefting her staff. Neptune nodded and hefted her own weapon and Ami began the more targeted scans to choose the moment.

"Now!" she called and the other pair struck as one.

The throne exploded into a rush of energy, unbound souls screaming outwards light the light from an atomic weapon. The girls were thrown to the floor, a tulmult of rushing power sweeping over their heads and exploding through the roof of the chamber. And through the roof above. And through the roof above that, until it broke free and rocketed out into the ether, each soul finding it's way to its true destination.

Then there was only silence. It took a few moments to realise that something was missing, then the girls turned to where the battle had raged. In the centre of the ruined room lay the wrecked body of the tower's former master, and over it, kneeling with one knee up, was the very naked and very human looking form of the cursed man who had made this possible. He turned to look at them just once, before keeling over onto the floor.


End file.
